OBITUARIES:
Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan, 114;
Oldest Person in the World
by
Myrna Oliver,
LA Times Staff Writer
May 31, 2004 (Los Angeles Times; p. B13) – Ramona Trinidad
Iglesias-Jordan, the world's oldest person and the last human being on
Earth born in the year 1889, died Saturday of pneumonia in Rio Piedras, a
suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was 114 years and 272 days old.
Her death was
confirmed for The Times by Dr. L. Stephen Coles of the UCLA-based
Gerontology Research Group, which verifies human age claims for the
Guinness Book of World Records. Coles'
group and Guinness officially recognized Iglesias-Jordan as the oldest
person in the world only a few weeks ago. Ironically, she died just two weeks
after the woman who had inadvertently but incorrectly held the title since
November. That was Charlotte
Enterlein Benkner who was born in Leipzig, Germany, on Nov. 16, 1889, and
died May 14 in Youngstown, OH.
Despite the
recognition of Benkner as the oldest American and the oldest person in the
world, Iglesias-Jordan's family refused to give up, said Robert Young,
Atlanta-based Senior Claims Investigator for the Gerontology Research Group.
The family presented a Baptismal Certificate (written more than seven months
after her birth), a 1912 Marriage Certificate, 1910 and 1920 Census data and a
Birth Certificate issued in 1948 as proof that she was born in Utuado, Puerto
Rico, on August 31, 1889 — some ten weeks earlier than Benkner.
After verification,
both the Gerontology Research Group and Guinness designated
Iglesias-Jordan as the world's oldest person in April. When Benkner died two
weeks ago, they called her the "second oldest person" and detailed
her incorrect tenure as "oldest person" for the six months it took
Iglesias-Jordan's family to prove their case.
Coincidentally, noted Young, both women were the eldest and longest
surviving (so far) of 11 children; both married, and neither had children. One
sister of Iglesias-Jordan lived to the age of 103, and a brother lived to 101.
She is survived by two sisters, aged 94 and 89. "The real secret was in the genes," Young said of
Iglesias-Jordan's longevity, discounting her own attribution to always cooking
with pork fat.
The dubious title of
world's oldest person — an achievement of longevity but inevitably an honor of
short duration — now goes to Hendrikje Van Andel-Schipper of the
Netherlands, who was born June 29, 1890.
Young said Sunday that
"Aunt Hennie," the new title holder, is the first person in some time
to inherit the crown at "a mere 113." She is the eldest of eight
people alive worldwide who were born in the year 1890. The oldest living
American, he said, is now Emma Verona Johnston of Worthington, OH, who
also is 113. The demography detective
said that, “besides Benkner, the last six consecutive world's oldest people — Eva
Morris of Britain, Marie Bremont of France, Maud Farris-Luse of
the U.S., Kamato Hongo and Mitoyo Kawate of Japan, and
Iglesias-Jordan
— each received the designation at the age of 114.” “Most also died at 114,”
Young noted, which he said “seems to be the normal maximum human life
span.” The longest verifiable human life span has been 122 years.
As for
Iglesias-Jordan, the last of the 1889ers, she was born in a year that also saw
the births of Adolph Hitler and Charlie Chaplin, the Johnstown, PA, flood, the
opening of Oklahoma to white settlement and completion of the Eiffel Tower in
Paris. When she was born, the daughter of
Eduardo Iglesias-Ortiz and Luisa Jordan-Correa, whose surnames were combined to
form her own, her native Puerto Rico was still part of the Spanish empire. Young said “Iglesias-Jordan could recall the
Spanish-American War of 1898, and told him that before the war her teachers
spoke only Spanish, but afterward, Americans arrived, introducing
English.” He said “she also had clear
memories of San Felipe, the hurricane that killed more than 2,000 people in
Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Florida in 1928.”
Iglesias-Jordan
married Alfonso Alonzo-Soler in 1912, and maintained their home while he worked
as a bank manager. Although they had no children, they adopted a nephew,
Roberto Torres-Iglesias, who is now 85. He had been planning a
115th-birthday-party for his aunt.