LongeviQuest is pleased to announce the age validation of Armida Sholar of the United States at age 111. She was born in Sumter, South Carolina, United States on 9 August 1905. Sholar worked as a desk clerk at Wesley Long Hospital in Greensboro. Sholar was a member of Starmount Presbyterian and Westminster Presbyterian Churches. She moved to the White Stone independent apartments in 1978, where she volunteered to tend to the rose and flower gardens. Sholar was a sister, a wife, and a mother to 4 children.

Following a hip fracture, Sholar spent 17 years in the Care Center. One of her hobbies was playing bingo, and she rarely missed playing three times each week. She had cancer twice. She smoked until the age of 103, only deciding to quit after a fall resulted in a broken hip. Despite this, Sholar occasionally indulged in smoking until 2013 when her retirement community implemented a smoking ban on the premises. At the age of 109, she had trouble hearing and seeing, but she was still lucid. On 19 November 2016, following the death of 111-year-old Ruby Clodfelter, she became the oldest known living resident of North Carolina.

On her 111th birthday. (Source: Facebook/LiveatWhiteStone)
On her 111th birthday.
(Source: Facebook/LiveatWhiteStone)

Sholar passed away in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, on 4 April 2017, at the age of 111 years, 238 days. Following her death, Hester Ford (who was only six days younger) succeeded her as North Carolina’s oldest living resident. She was survived by her son Bill, 12 grandchildren, as well as numerous great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

LongeviQuest congratulates Armida Sholar’s family on her posthumous recognition.

For more information, please view Sholar’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is pleased to announce the age validation of Martha Coleman of the United States at age 111. She was born in Travis County, Texas, United States on 5 June 1905 as the sixth of 14 children. Coleman attended a segregated high school until her father fell ill, forcing her to leave school at 16. She used her sewing skills to help support her family.

Around 1932, Coleman married and had two sons. She worked as a cook for various doctors and lawyers in Austin. She continued to make quilts throughout her life, and many of them have been exhibited at the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center.

At the age of 104. (Source: Quilts)
At the age of 104.
(Source: Quilts)

When asked about the secret to her longevity, she said, “Be nice to everyone. And I drink water; I never drank soda water until I was 90, and I read the Bible a lot. Live right and treat your neighbors right. Regardless of what a person does to you, always forgive.”

Coleman passed away in Austin, Texas, USA, on 18 June 2016, at the age of 111 years, 13 days. At the time of her passing, she was the third-oldest known living person in the U.S. state of Texas, behind Corine Snow and Hazel Gates.

LongeviQuest congratulates Martha Coleman’s family on her posthumous recognition.

For more information, please view Coleman’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is delighted to announce the age validation of Edith Lale at 110 years old. She was an American supercentenarian born on 10 March 1905.

Lale was born on the family farm located four and a half miles east of Odesa in Lafeyette County, Missouri, USA. From 1913 to 1919, Lale attended Rural Weaver School before completing her high school in Odessa. Subsequently, she pursued higher education at Missouri Valley College before transferring to Kansas State Agricultural College. This is where she earned her degree of Bachelor of Science in Home Economics.

As a young woman. (Source: Legacy)
As a young woman.
(Source: Legacy)

In 1951, she moved to Louisville to live with family members. She served as a research associate for the published genealogy entitled “The Lagle/Lale Family in America.” She contributed a chapter into this publication titled “Kentucky to Missouri, 1858.”

Lale passed away on 20 May 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. She was 110 years and 71 days old at the time of her death.

For more information, please visit Edith Lale’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is pleased to announce the age validation of Rose Thayer of the United States at age 110. She was born in Dakota, Minnesota, United States on 1 September 1905. She was a wife and a mother to 2 sons.

On her 110th birthday in 2015.
(Source: Daily Jefferson County Union)

Thayer lived with her son from 1984 until 2012. At the age of 83, she moved to a nursing home in Jefferson, Wisconsin, where she enjoyed playing bingo, church services, baking, going for walks outdoors, and phone calls and visits from her family. At the time of her 110th birthday in 2015, she credited her longevity to “God, who has the plan,” as well as eating sunflower seeds.

Rose Thayer died in Jefferson, Wisconsin, on 16 August 2016 at the age of 110 years, 350 days.

LongeviQuest congratulates Rose Thayer’s family on her posthumous recognition.

For more information, please view Thayer’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is delighted to announce the age validation of Josefina Quirós Soto at 110 years old. She was a Costa Rican supercentenarian recognized as the oldest (known) living person of her country at the time of her death.

Josefina Quirós Soto was born on 12 April 1905 in Grecia, Alajuela, Costa Rica, to parents Amadeo Quirós Fonseca and Belarmina Soto Quirós.

She married Fernando Vega Kopper in 1928 and the couple had two sons and two daughters.

At the age of 107.
(Source: Elias Eduardo Chaves Alvarez)

Josefina was a distant relative of Marita Camacho Quirós, Costa Rica’s former first lady and oldest person ever.

At the age of 110 years and 178 days, Josefina Quirós Soto passed away on 7 October 2015 in Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

For more information, please view Josefina Quirós Soto’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is pleased to announce the age validation of Tōichi Sasaki of Japan. He was born in  on and passed away in Ōsaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan on 20 April 2017 at the age of 111. He was the second-oldest living man in Japan at the time of his death.

Mr. Sasaki worked in agriculture. At the age of 29, he married a woman named Shigeko. They had two sons and six daughters. As of 2005, he had 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and he lived with his eldest son. At the age of 100, his legs were not so strong anymore, but his eyesight and hearing remained good. He attributed his longevity to taking Chinese medicine for 30 years, and how he was always in bed by 6 PM. He also enjoyed spending time each day drinking tea, chatting, and watching his favorite period dramas on television.

In 2011, likely following the passing of 106-year-old Inao Chiba (Japanese: 千葉稲男) of Tome on February 19, he became the oldest living man in Miyagi Prefecture. Some time at the age of 107, he became the oldest man to ever live in Miyagi Prefecture. In September 2015, he celebrated his 110th birthday, becoming the first male supercentenarian in Miyagi Prefecture.

At the age of 110. (Source: o-seishinkai.sakura.ne.jp)
At the age of 110.
(Source: o-seishinkai.sakura.ne.jp)

On 29 October 2016, following the death of Japan’s oldest living man of the time, Masamitsu Yoshida of Tokyo, he became the second-oldest living man in Japan, after Masazo Nonaka.

LongeviQuest congratulates Mr. Sasaki’s family on his posthumous recognition.

For more information, please view Mr. Sasaki’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is pleased to announce the age validation of Mary Marsh of the United States. She was born in on . Mrs. Marsh was the second of nine siblings. She grew up on a 129-acre farm where her family raised tomatoes for a local canning factory.

On her 110th birthday. (Source: WSET)
On her 110th birthday.
(Source: WSET)

At the age of 14, she joined and served at Shady Grove Baptist Church until she was 18. Afterward, she became a lifetime member of the First Baptist Church of Lynchburg. Mrs. Marsh also went to night school to take refresher courses in reading, writing, arithmetic, and English to become a bookkeeper. This is where she met her husband, Osby Edgar Marsh. The couple had three children, while also raising one of her nephews as her own child.

At the age of 105, she was still working in her small garden, still was still able to do canning, cooking, and sewing. When asked about the secret of her longevity, she attributed it to: “The Lord, my family, hard work, and good homegrown food…”.

Mrs. Marsh passed away on at the age of 110 years, 332 days. She was survived by her daughter, eight grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, 18 great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great-granddaughter.

LongeviQuest congratulates Mrs. Marsh’s family on her posthumous recognition.

For more information, please view Mrs. Marsh’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is delighted to announce the age validation of Antoinette Ploger at 111 years old.

Antoinette Ploger was an American supercentenarian born in Mount Vernon, New York, USA, on 21 November 1905. She was born to Italian-born parents Michael and Jennie Cioppa.

On her 111th birthday in 2016. (Source: Facebook/The City of Yonkers)
On her 111th birthday in 2016.
(Source: Facebook/The City of Yonkers)

At some point in her life, she married Frank Ploger to start a family with two children.

Antoinette Ploger passed away in Yonkers, New York, USA, on 30 August 2017.

For more information, please view Antoinette Ploger’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is pleased to announce the age validation of Chrystal Harper at 111 years old. She is currently the oldest known person who ever died in the U.S. state of Idaho.

Chrystal Harper was born on 28 June 1905 on a farm by Stanton’s Crossing, Blaine County, Idaho, USA. The family farm was sold in 1917 so she moved to Boise, Idaho, where she met her soon-to-be husband, Ed Harper. Seven years later, the couple got married on 15 September 1924 and moved to Long Beach, California. This is the same place where they had a dry cleaning business.

On her 111th birthday in 2016. (Source: mtexpress.com)
On her 111th birthday in 2016.
(Source: mtexpress.com)

The couple returned to Wood River Valley, Blaine County, Idaho in 1943.

Mrs. Harper retired at the age of 88. She moved into Bell Mountain Care Center in Bellevue in 2015 where she passed away one year later on 11 December 2016.

For more information, please view Chrystal Harper’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is delighted to announce the validation of Yoshiko Araki’s age claim of 111 years old. She was a Japanese supercentenarian who was the oldest living person in Shimane Prefecture, Japan at the time of death.

Mrs. Araki was born in Yokota, Shimane Prefecture, Japan, on 31 March 1905. She grew up in this town to the point that she witnessed how it merged with the town of Nita to form the present-day Okuizumo.

Mrs. Araki married a man from the same town at some point. Her daily routine was to wake up as early as 4AM every morning to take her three horses to the mountain to cut grass.

In October 2008, aged 103. (Source: Public Relations Okuizumo)
In October 2008, aged 103.
(Source: Public Relations Okuizumo)

She ate three meals on a regular basis at the age of 111. During this time, she still enjoyed singing and dancing. It also became a customary deed for her to sing whenever her doctor would visit at home.

Yoshiko Araki passed away in Okuizumo on 28 February 2017, after her health deteriorated earlier that month.

For more information, please view Yoshiko Araki’s Directory Profile here.