Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

Oldest man dies


Recommended Posts

Interesting story. For about two years back in the late 1990s, I worked with a very active centennarian named Audrey Stubbart. At 107, she was still working 40 hours a week at a copy editor for the The Examiner newspaper in Independence, Mo.

It can be a little shocking being around someone that age who still has all their faculties intact.

One day we were discussing the first nationwide news stories we could remember. Mine was Bobbie Kennedy's assassination. One of the editors remembered JFK's death. An editor emeritus who wrote a weekly column said he remembered Pearl Harbor being bombed. Audrey piped up, "I remember when the telegraph operator came up for the railway station and told us McKinley had been shot." You win -- Audrey.

 

We had a columnist who wrote about the history of the Old West in America. Audrey called him over one time and asked, "What do you know about Custer?"

 

"Well, I'm a western historian, I know a little about him, what do you want to know?"

 

"What kind of man do you think he was? My parents met him a couple of times and they really liked him."

 

I can tell you -- it was an unforgettable experience working with someone who was already married with two children, and living in a sod house on a Wyoming homestead, when World War I started.

 

Audrey died in 2000, about four months short of her 110th birthday. She started her career as a schoolteacher in a one-room school house and ended it editing newspapers on Apple MacIntosh computers. If you ever get a chance to be around someone like that, take it. You'll never regret it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting story. For about two years back in the late 1990s, I worked with a very active centennarian named Audrey Stubbart. At 107, she was still working 40 hours a week at a copy editor for the The Examiner newspaper in Independence, Mo.

It can be a little shocking being around someone that age who still has all their faculties intact.

One day we were discussing the first nationwide news stories we could remember. Mine was Bobbie Kennedy's assassination. One of the editors remembered JFK's death. An editor emeritus who wrote a weekly column said he remembered Pearl Harbor being bombed. Audrey piped up, "I remember when the telegraph operator came up for the railway station and told us McKinley had been shot." You win -- Audrey.

 

We had a columnist who wrote about the history of the Old West in America. Audrey called him over one time and asked, "What do you know about Custer?"

 

"Well, I'm a western historian, I know a little about him, what do you want to know?"

 

"What kind of man do you think he was? My parents met him a couple of times and they really liked him."

 

I can tell you -- it was an unforgettable experience working with someone who was already married with two children, and living in a sod house on a Wyoming homestead, when World War I started.

 

Audrey died in 2000, about four months short of her 110th birthday. She started her career as a schoolteacher in a one-room school house and ended it editing newspapers on Apple MacIntosh computers. If you ever get a chance to be around someone like that, take it. You'll never regret it.

 

 

I knew Audrey as well. I will never forget her big 100th birthday bash at the Three Trails Museum down the street from my office. We stood in line for hours to see her and she greeted every one of us with a warm handshake and a kind word. I didn't think she would remember me, but she knew who I was and suggested I needed to improve my writing. I don't know how long she stood there shaking hands, but they didn't turn anybody away. She was amazing.

 

Marsha, my bookkeeper, was one of her co-workers at the Examiner. She tells me that Audrey was 105 when she stopped working at the paper. She died a few months later at 106. She was sharp to the end. Her body just gave out. Marsha remembers Audrey telling her one day that she had to leave the office early. One of her kids was turning 80 and she had to buy a birthday card. She always said her secret to long life was work. She worked full time until she was 105. My wife says that her replacement wasn't nearly as good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have always imagined the things people like him saw. From just about nothing to hand held computers that do it all. Its amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "Oldest Person In The World" died?

Again?

Man, it's like that title is cursed or something...

Creeker, I have it on good authority the oldest man is still alive...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Hoss Carpenter, SASS Life 7843

Hey Texas Jim,

 

 

I read about this great ole fellow a couple of weeks ago, however, I don't think he was the World's oldest man. He was the oldest man in the USA for sure, but there is supposed to be a man in Europe who is 115 and one in Asia that is 116, Whatever; anyhow he led a great life and if I remember he was the last American "Doughboy" from WW 1.

 

Cheers, Hoss

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had an uncle who passed away at 94 in 2007, and listening to him talk was like listening to a talking history book. He would speak about job hunting during the Great Depression and said in those days you didn't even mention a wage, "If you found a ranch that would let you work from before the sun came up til after dark, gave you breakfast, a noon meal, and let you sleep indoors in the barn, you had a pretty damn good job".

 

This world has changed more in the past 150 years than it ever has before and ever will again. My maternal grandfather came to the US from Norway and was pretty darn proud of HIS FIRST REAL HOME IN THE NEW WORLD, a structure not much different than his ancestors lived in a thousand years ago.

 

Godspeed, Mr. Breuning, and rest well, sir.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope, Walt was the oldest Man (read that male) in the world until yesterday--114 years,205 days. The current male is 113 years, 362 days, and lives in Japan. The oldest Person is Bess Cooper (female) at 114 years, 233 days. These are "verified" ages by birth certificates.

 

Walt was quite a character. He quit smoking cigars on his 105th birthday, and a year later couldn't figure out why he quit. He was quick of whit and sharp as a tack. Always wore a tie and a sport coat. Here's the link to the Great Falls Tribune.

Crusty

 

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20110415/NEWS01/104150324/1001/NEWS/World-s-oldest-man-brightened-others-lives-end

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Grandfather passed in 1971, having been born in 1857. Don't recall whether it was before or after his birthday. But after that long does it really matter? :huh: He had married for the second time, to a younger woman, in about 1915. She passed in 1993 at 107. Not only do I wish I had listened more closely to them both when they would recollect, I hope some of that genetic material made it down to me. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I knew Audrey as well. I will never forget her big 100th birthday bash at the Three Trails Museum down the street from my office. We stood in line for hours to see her and she greeted every one of us with a warm handshake and a kind word. I didn't think she would remember me, but she knew who I was and suggested I needed to improve my writing. I don't know how long she stood there shaking hands, but they didn't turn anybody away. She was amazing.

 

Marsha, my bookkeeper, was one of her co-workers at the Examiner. She tells me that Audrey was 105 when she stopped working at the paper. She died a few months later at 106. She was sharp to the end. Her body just gave out. Marsha remembers Audrey telling her one day that she had to leave the office early. One of her kids was turning 80 and she had to buy a birthday card. She always said her secret to long life was work. She worked full time until she was 105. My wife says that her replacement wasn't nearly as good.

 

Bart,

Apparently I mis-remembered Audrey's age. I was a reporter at The Examiner while she was still a copy editor there -- but my memory may not be a sharp as her's was.<grin>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bart,

Apparently I mis-remembered Audrey's age. I was a reporter at The Examiner while she was still a copy editor there -- but my memory may not be a sharp as her's was.<grin>

 

 

She worked full time until she was 105 and 2 months. She wrote her last regular column when she was 103. I think both are still records. Sure she had friends on the paper who looked out for her and the paper took pride in having the world's oldest full time employee, but she pulled her weight until the end. No nursing home for Audrey.

 

I looked Aubrey up and discovered that Marsha mis-remembered too. She was 105 when she died three months after retirement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was truly amazing to work with Audrey. I gave her a ride home a couple of times. She lived next door to the Sonic Drive Inn on 23rd Street, and she told me the area was nothing but farm fields when she and her husband moved there at the beginning of WWII (he worked in the bomber plant at Fairfax).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.