Helen Ida Wheat, the third oldest American, died Tuesday night at her assisted living facility, in Frederick, Md.
She was 113.
"She was just an inspiration to everybody," said her son, Richard Naylor, proprietor of Naylor Winery in Stewartstown. "She was just so positive about everything. She made the world a better place to live."
Wheat was
born Sept. 16, 1902, the youngest of four children. She was the third oldest
living American at the time of her death, according to records kept by the
Gerontology Research Group. She was 15th oldest person in the world.
"She
always said, 'I don’t know why the good Lord keeps me around," her
daughter, Janey Andrews, one of her three children, who lives in
Frederick, said in September when Wheat turned 113.
Wheat went
to school in York, but quit in the sixth grade to work at the York Ice Co. to
help her family.
She
married twice. Her first husband, Harvey Pierce Naylor, was a grocer and,
later, a machinist. They divorced when her children were young. She then
married Bill Wheat, a conductor on the rail line between New York and
Washington, and moved to Maryland.
In her later years,
she worked at her son's winery, doing everything from working in the vineyards
picking grapes to affixing labels on bottles. She worked until she was 97, her
son said. She worked in the fields and drove a car until she was 93.
She liked wine and
attributed to longevity to having a glass every evening. She also credited her
positive attitude and her deep faith.
She also loved
music and taught herself to play piano and organ when her church needed an
organist.
She was 17
when women got the right to vote, but she never voted, her daughter said.
"She never
believed in women voting," her daughter said Wednesday. "I don't know
why. I guess she didn't feel it was woman's place."
She has nine
grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren.
"She was an
amazing lady," Andrews said. "She was just a great person. Her shoes
will be hard to fill."
No comments:
Post a Comment