Email   Print   Share By Janna Lewis, III Corps Public Affairs

Facebook Digg Delicious July 29, 2010 | Leisure

This photo of a young Eunice Sanborn, taken at the start of the 20th century, hangs in the home in which she has lived for more than 60 years — and still resides. Dr. Deborah Burkett and the Cherokee County Historical Commission

Sanborn sits in her home with a quilt she was given as a gift.

As of this writing, East Texan Eunice Sanborn of Jacksonville is the oldest living American.

The Gerontology Research Group in Los Angeles says Sanborn is 114, which makes her the oldest person in the United States and the second oldest in the world. The oldest person in the world allegedly is a French woman who predates Miss Eunice by five months.

Miss Eunice, however, says the GRG is wrong and that she was born on July 20 in 1895, not 1896 as the official record states, which makes her 115, and that would make her the oldest person in the world.

I’d like to claim Miss Eunice as a native Texan, but she’s not. She was born in Lake Charles, La. That makes her a Louisianan. But she did help found Love’s Lookout on Highway 69 near Jacksonville, and spent the majority of her life in Texas, so she’s more than been naturalized.

According to TexasEscapes.com, Love’s Lookout is described as “perched atop a scenic forested ridge beside U.S. Highway 69 north of Jacksonville,” and “Love’s Lookout offers perhaps the grandest view in East Texas. Visitors can scan a horizon that stretches into several counties. Some are convinced that, on a clear day, they can see Louisiana.”

The nine-mile-long ridge is named for John Wesley Love, whose family owned the property before giving it to the state for park use.

I imagine that view into Louisiana might have been part of Miss Eunice’s interest in creating the spot.

I got to thinking about Miss Eunice. She moved to Texas in 1937. For the sake of this column, let’s imagine that she’s right and she was born in 1895. In 1937, she’d have been about 42 years old. During the first half of the 20th century, not many people lived past age 65, so 42 was considered fairly ancient back then.

I’m glad times have changed.

I’m trying to imagine all that Miss Eunice has seen during her 115 years: the Spanish-American War, the creation of Yosemite as a national park, the annexation of Hawaii, the Panama Canal, the hurricane of 1900 at Galveston, Prohibition, Henry Ford’s first car, World Wars I and II, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the Great Depression, plastic wrap, TV dinners, Watson and Crick’s DNA double helix model, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Elvis, the Beatles, the Shelby Mustang, mini-skirts, Watergate, the microwave oven, disco and the iPhone. And that was the short list.

Miss Eunice outlived three husbands and has known 20 U.S. presidents through three centuries from Grover Cleveland to Barack Obama.

Miss Eunice probably remembers life before the telephone and indoor plumbing, as well as life before the Internet. And now she’s on the Internet, which is where I learned about her.

From what I’ve learned, Miss Eunice only recently slowed down her daily activities. At 99, she stayed a week with one of her neighbors who had just had a baby. She helped clean house for the new mother.

Miss Eunice has spent 73 of her 115 years in Texas, so I’d like to think it’s something about the Lone Star State that contributed to her longevity, but she credits her faith in Jesus Christ and just waking up and getting dressed every day.

Miss Eunice has not said what the future holds for her. I imagine at 115, it’s taking things a day at a time.

So what’s the lesson we learn from Miss Eunice?

Move to Texas, live forever. Or at least increase your longevity by moving to Texas.