Jeralean Talley Of Michigan Celebrating Her 115th Birthday Is The Oldest Living American!
Days after The Inquisitr reported about the oldest living man Dr. Alexander Imich, the Detroit Free Press reports that a woman from Inkster, Michigan is celebrating her 115th birthday on May 23, 2014. The lady is none other than Jeralean Talley, who was born in 1899. She is the oldest living person in the US and is only slightly younger than the current record holder for the world’s oldest living person. That title belongs to Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, who is a staggering 116 years old. That said, Jeralean Talley is one of the few people whose lifespans have covered parts of three centuries.
Jeralean Talley was born in Montrose, Georgia. She moved to Michigan back in 1935 — 10 years before the end of World War II — and has been living there ever since. Her husband, Alfred Talley, passed away in 1988. The couple had one daughter, Thelma, who is 76 and lives with and takes care of her mother. In fact, five generations of her family currently live with her, the youngest member of the family being her 14-month-old great-great-grandson Armmell Holloway.
At 115, Jeralean Talley does a lot of things a lot of younger “kids” in their 80s and 90s fail to. She was a regular at bowling alleys in her area until she was 105. Until last year, Jeralean also went on frequent fishing trips. She gets around on her own using a walker. That said, with old age she does suffer from related issues, including pain in her knees. Jeralean’s right hand is also shaky and her hearing ability has decreased. There are the occasional memory blackouts as well.
Jeralean Talley plans to celebrate her birthday with family and friends at the New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Inkster on Sunday. However, today she will be at her doctors where she has a scheduled check-up, even though she is not “feeling sick.”
According to the Gerontology Reseach Group, an organization which tracks many of the worlds oldest people, Jeralean Talley is the oldest living American and second-oldest person in the world. She falls in the category of a supercentenarian, a person who lives to be 110 or older. Only 1 in 5 million people living in the US ever live long enough to get into that list. Currently, the group contains only 75 people are officially confirmed to be at least 111 years old. However, accounting for unreported cases, they estimate that the world currently has at least 300 to 450 people who are above the age of 111.
Let’s all wish Jeralean Talley a very happy birthday and pray that she lives to be over 122 – which is the current world record!
[Image via MSN]
