Living to a ripe old age is considered a lifelong goal of millions of Americans. However, the life expectancy for people living in America has been dropping over the last few years thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and other life-threatening factors in the modern world. However, one Iowa grandmother managed to bypass all of the sickness and illness to reach her one hundred fifteenth birthday celebration, which allowed her to set a record that no one saw coming.
Bessie Hendricks turned 115 in early November 2022 and officially became the United States’ oldest living person. She was born before the Great Depression and has lived through two World Wars and two global pandemics – the Spanish flu in the 1910s and the COVID-19 pandemic of the modern era. As someone who witnessed so much of American history unfold in real-time, Bessie Hendricks deserves all the accolades that she has received for achieving the record-breaking birthday milestone.
During her long life, Bessie Hendricks has lived through the election of twenty-one American presidents, including the election of the first Catholic, first African American, and first reality television star presidents. She also lived during the sinking of the Titanic and both World Wars.
Hendricks celebrated her milestone birthday along with her surviving children. Her eldest daughter is ninety years old herself, which is quite a milestone in and of itself. Her eldest daughter is Joan Schaffer, who celebrated her birthday just one day before Bessie celebrated hers. Joan was with her younger siblings, Shirley, Glenda, and Leon. It would have been a miracle if all five of the children were able to celebrate long life together, but the fifth child tragically passed away some years back.
As the oldest living American, Bessie Hendricks is someone you want to learn from. Two other women had previously held the title until their tragic passing this past year. Thelma Sutcliffe passed away last January, while Mila Mangold died in July 2022.
While Bessie Hendricks celebrates her 115th birthday, she becomes the oldest person living in the United States of America. But she’s not the oldest person in the world. In fact, there are nine other people who are older than Bessie living around the world, making her the tenth oldest person on the globe, which is quite astonishing.
According to her family members, Bessie Hendricks’s secret to a long life is her strength. Her daughter had some strong words to say about her mother.
“Her mother died when she was about 13… And she raised her siblings after that. And when she taught school, she lived right across the road from where she taught school, so she had no reason not to go, not to make it to school,” ninety-year-old Joan told KCCI of her mother.
Bessie’s son, Leon, claimed that his mother always put the family first. They were all glad to be able to gather to celebrate the old woman’s birthday at the Shady Oaks Care Center.
