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New York's Centenarians Still Kicking
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Aug 16, 2010
Modified Aug 16, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Aug 16, 2010
Modified Aug 16, 2010
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After Japanese authorities recently learned that the country's "oldest man" had actually been dead and mummified for 30 years, the Times double checked that some of the city's oldest were still around. It turns out some of them are more active than ever, and blogging about it!
Evelyn Kozak was born on the Lower East Side in 1899, and at the age of 110 moved in with her granddaughter in Kensington, Brooklyn. Twenty years ago she retired from running a boarding house in Miami, and now enjoys getting manicures and asking her relatives to find her a new man. (Though she recently dismissed a 115-year-old bachelor as "too old.") She turned 111 on Saturday, but celebrated in the hospital due to an infection. Susie Mushatt Jones also recently celebrated her 111th birthday in Brooklyn, where friends described her as "her feisty self."
At a sprightly 103, Eugenie Cormier Ahders is taking to the internet to tell her story. Born "on the docks" on the Lower East Side in 1907, she describes her brother fighting against Pancho Villa, making things work during the Depression ("the real one"), and having an 80-year-old kid. But she also gets political, saying, "I had hoped after Medicare was passed that I would see the expansion of Medicare for all Americans. I am still waiting. How much longer can I wait?" At least seven more years, if Kozak and Jones are any indication!
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