Mary Ransopher, the oldest living person in the U.S. state of Indiana, celebrated her 112th birthday in Frankfort on Christmas Day. Her birthday was first reported by the City of Frankfort on their Facebook page.
Mary Ransopher was born in Howard County, Indiana, on 25 December 1912, to parents Ed Orliff Farlow and Pansy Thompson. She had four brothers. The family moved to her father’s family apple orchard, Farlow’s Orchard, in Russiaville, which had been established by her grandparents in 1885. At the orchard, they grew heritage apple varieties.
In the early 1920s, the family lived in a white, two-story house located just over a mile southeast of New London and the school. Her first “job” was preparing all the meals for herself and her brothers to take to school. They carried their lunches in either a bucket or a lunchbox. To get to the New London School, they had to walk the entire distance. By the time she was a teenager, she was selling apples and eating plenty of them, having grown up surrounded by an abundance of fruit on the orchard.
On her 112th birthday in 2024. (Source: The City of Frankfort, Indiana)
On 28 August 1935, she married Jesse Marland “Marlin” Ransopher (1913–2006) at the New London Friends Church outside of Russiaville. They went on to have four children: Jane Ann, Ed, Susan, and Tad. In 1940, they moved to a farm in Clinton County, where they lived for 12 years. During that time, they managed a traditional farm with cows, pigs, and milk cows.
In 1994, she moved into a retirement community as her husband’s health began to decline. After his passing in 2006, she continued living independently for more than a decade, until her eyesight began to fail.
On 24 April 2023, following the death of 111-year-old Charlotte McLauchlin, she became the oldest (known) living person in the U.S. state of Indiana.
The featured image was taken shortly before her 111th birthday. Sourced from Clinton County Daily News
LongeviQuest extends warm congratulations to Mary Ransopher on her 112th birthday.
