BIOGRAPHY

Eunice Sanborn was born in Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana, on 20 July 1896, to parents Augustus and Varina Lyons. As a child, she survived a bout of scarlet fever, but would lose two sisters to the illness.

Sanborn was married three times; after her first husband, Joseph Orchin, died in a car crash in 1923, she married Wesley Garrett, with whom she would build Love’s Lookout, a recreation and entertainment center located near Jacksonville that opened in 1937. After Garrett’s death in 1940, she married her third husband, Grant Sanborn. She remained with her final husband for around 30 years, until his death in the 1970s.

She was an active member of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, where she would sing in the choir. She also frequently volunteered at a local hospital. Her only child, Dorothy, who was born from her first marriage, died in 2005 at the age of 89. In a 2007 interview, she attributed her longevity to her faith in God, stating “my secret is my Savior”. In her later years, she required constant assistance from multiple caregivers, but still retained her memories from her youth.

Eunice Sanborn died on 31 January 2011, at the age of 114 years, 195 days.

RECOGNITION

Following the death of Neva Morris on 6 April 2010, she became the oldest living person in the United States, and was officially validated by the Gerontology Research Group on 22 July 2006.

ATTRIBUTION

“Eunice Sanborn dies Monday” – Jacksonville Daily Progress, 31 January 2011

GALLERY