Chicago Sun-Times

NEW JERSEY WOMAN WAS OLDEST AMERICAN

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FLEMINGTON, N. J. — Adele Dunlap, the oldest person in America, has died at age 114.

Dunlap died Sunday at a hospital near Flemington, according to the Martin Funeral Home. She became the country’s oldest person in July 2016 following the death of 113- year- old Goldie Michelson, of Worcester, Massachuse­tts.

The oldest known person living in the U. S. now is 113- year- old Delphine Gibson, of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvan­ia, according the Gerontolog­y Research Group, which tracks people older than 110 worldwide.

Dunlap didn’t have an explanatio­n for her longevity, and neither did her children. Asked once how it felt to be the oldest American, Dunlap said, “I don’t feel any different.”

Dunlap was born Dec. 12, 1902, in Newark, though family and caregivers said she often gave a younger age when asked how old she was. The year she was born, Theodore Roosevelt was president, Cuba gained independen­ce from Spain, the second Boer War ended, and the U. S. bought the rights to the Panama Canal from France.

Dunlap taught school before marrying and settling down to raise the couple’s three children. Her husband worked for an insurance company and died in 1963.

“She never went out jogging or anything like that,” her son, Earl Dunlap, said when his mother became the oldest American. “She’s not really thin, but she never weighed more than 140 pounds. She smoked, and when my father had his first heart attack, they both stopped. I think she ate anything she wanted.”

Earl Dunlap said his mother wasn’t a drinker but did occasional­ly enjoy a martini with her husband.

Officials at the Country Arch Care Center in Pittstown, where Dunlap first arrived at age 99 ½ , described her as a passive participan­t in daily activities and said she didn’t socialize much. But they said she looked forward to Girl Scouts’ coming to sing Christmas carols.

 ?? | KEVIN WEXLER/ THE RECORD VIA AP ?? Adele Dunlap poses for a photo on her 114th birthday, in the lobby of the Country Arch Care Center in Pittstown, N. J.
| KEVIN WEXLER/ THE RECORD VIA AP Adele Dunlap poses for a photo on her 114th birthday, in the lobby of the Country Arch Care Center in Pittstown, N. J.

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