Oldest American lives in Iowa

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Neva Morris of Ames became the oldest American on Sunday after the death of Mary Josephine Ray, the New Hampshire woman who had been certified as the nation's oldest person.

Ray died at age 114 years, 294 days.

Morris, at age 114 years and 216 days, is also the second-oldest person in the world. The oldest is Japan's Kama Chinen, at age 114 years, 301 days.

Morris was born Aug. 3, 1895, in Ames and lives at the Northcrest Community health center. Only one of her four children, a son in Sioux City, Iowa, is still alive.

“She has some hearing deficiencies and a visual deficiency, but mentally she is quite alert and will respond when she feels like it and isn't too tired,” said her 90-year-old son-in-law Tom Wickersham, who lives at the same care center.

Wickersham described his mother-in-law as personable and hard-working. After her husband died in the 1960s, she assumed responsibility for keeping up the family's house, he said during an October interview.

She lived in the house alone for more than 30 years, until she was into her 90s, Wickersham said. Even in her old age, he said, she was willing to be adventurous, taking trips to Florida and the Pacific Northwest and buying a new car at the age of 92.

Wickersham said he visits his mother-in-law — who plays bingo and enjoys singing “You Are My Sunshine” — nearly every day.

“You can put aside any of those typical mother-in-law jokes,” he said. “When I visit her, I spend probably at least a half an hour with her on a daily basis that involves as much conversation as you'd share, the usual things, the weather.”

The oldest living Nebraskan is Mabel Ragan, who is just over 109. She lives at the Wolf Memorial Good Samaritan Center in Albion.

Mary Josephine Ray died Sunday at a nursing home in Westmoreland, N.H. She had been active until about two weeks before her death, her granddaughter Katherine Ray said.

Even with her recent decline, Ray managed an interview with a reporter last week, her granddaughter said.

Ray's husband, Walter, died in 1967. Survivors include two sons, eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.

“She just enjoyed life. She never thought of dying at all,” Katherine Ray said. “She was planning for her birthday party.”

This report includes material from the World-Herald News Service.

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