104-year-old Reclaims Parasailing Record

EUROPE -- At 104 years old, Peggy Alpine of Cyprus set out to reclaim her Guiness Book record of being the oldest person in the world to parasail, which she set five years ago and had lost in September 2011 to Mary Allen Hardison, 101, of Utah. Alpine regained the record April 29.

Watch this video of Alpine parasailing.


This 104-year-old is something else, besides all smiles.

Titanic Disaster Turns 100 Years Old

Photos from wikipedia.com and picturescollection.com

PASCAGOULA -- The Pascagoula Public Library this week will join the national commemoration of the sinking of the RMS Titanic a century ago on April 15, 1912.

The oceanliner, on its maiden voyage, was traveling from South Hampton, United Kingdom, to New York City when it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic south of Newfoundland. The ship sank just over two hours later, leaving about 1,517 people dead and some 706 survivors, mostly women and children.

The library's program, "Remembering the Titanic," will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 17.

Renee Hauge with the library's Genealogy and History Department will make a PowerPoint presentation, which she said would be an interactive musical storytelling of the ship, its passengers, and the disaster. The program is a memorial to the people lost aboard Titanic, she said.

"These people that died, we need to remember them always because of their sacrifice," she said.

"The stories are so beautiful because of the bravery. Most of the people faced their death so beautifully."

She said so many mistakes led up to the accident, which took the lives of so many people. However, she said new safety regulations were added to commercial ship operation that now saves the lives of both rich and poor.

Hauge said residents will be able to participate in the program as passengers boarding the library's Titanic. Those attending will be given boarding passes that have the names of actual passengers who were aboard the Titanic on April 15, 1912, when the luxury liner sank in the frigid waters of the USA's North Atlantic coast.

"We will pass out a boarding pass and tell them to don't open it until we tell them to open it," she said. "They will open the pass. They will find out who they were on the ship and they will find out if they lived or died."

Dr. Robert Ballard found the Titantic in 1985 in 13,000 feet of water.

HISTORY OF THE TITANIC (wikipedia online)

RMS Titanic was a passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City, US. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,514 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. One of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built between 1909–11 by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She carried 2,223 people.

Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in North America. The ship was designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. She also had a powerful wireless telegraph provided for the convenience of passengers as well as for operational use. Though she had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, she lacked enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people – slightly more than half of the number travelling on the maiden voyage and one-third her total passenger and crew capacity.After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading westwards towards New York.[2] On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles (600 km) south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm (ship's time; GMT−3). The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly filled. A disproportionate number of men – over 90% of those in Second Class – were left aboard due to a "women and children first" protocol followed by the officers loading the lifeboats. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean. The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by RMS Carpathia a few hours later.

Reference for Dr. Robert Ballard: http://www.titanic-titanic.com/discovery_of_titanic.shtml

HAPPY

NEW

YEAR !!!

2012

99 and Beyond on Hiatus for Holidays

During December, 99andBeyond.blogspot.com will not add any posts while changes are being made, and some information and editing is added to present posts.

Thanks so much for following this blog. We look forward to your feedback in our comments section.

Watch for more frequents posts during 2012, while you look over and post your thoughts on what is needed to make this blog better serve its intended audience -- elder residents and their families.


Vivian Austin at 228-623-8883

Secretary of State Clinton Loses Mother

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The mother of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton died Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011, after an illness, according to media reports.

Dorothy Howell Rodham was 92 years old when she passed away during the early hours, reportedly, shortly after midnight, according to taiwannews.

Hillary Clinton's Mother Remembered
ABC World News/Tuesday, Nov. 01, 2011 (video)

Rodham was born in Chicago in 1919, the daughter of a firefighter, Edwin John Howell Jr. and Della Murray. In her autobiography, Clinton described her mother's childhood as lonely and without love from parents who divorced in 1927 and grandparents who lived in California, where Rodham and her sister, Isabelle, were sent to live.

Dorothy Emma Howell and Hugh E. Rodham, a traveling salesman, married in 1942. They raised Hillary and her brothers Tony and Hugh.

According to ABC anchor Diane Sawyer, Hillary Clinton's mother was an inspiration to her famous daughter, whom Dorothy Rodham taught to "never be a quitter."

David 'Honey Boy' Edwards Dies at 96

Possibly, the last of the legendary Mississippi bluesmen has died.

David "Honey Boy" Edwards passed away Monday, Aug. 29, 2011, at his home in Chicago, according to his manager. Edwards was 96. He was believed to be the oldest surviving bluesman from this state's Delta.

Betty Ford leaves legacy of cancer, addiction treatment, social activism

1974 photo found at wikipedia

Former first lady Betty Ford, who became the face of alcohol addiction and how to get help, died Friday.



Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford was born April 8, 1918, in Chicago. She died July 8, 2011, at age 93.



The dancer who never dreamed of becoming a political wife, was treated for addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs in 1976. In 1982, she established the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. In 1991, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribtuion to health issues.



She and her husband, President Gerald Ford, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1998 for their public service.



She brought the same attention to breast cancer, pulling the disease from behind hushed silence and bringing relief and medical bravery to countless women across the United States. She talked openly about treatment after she was diagnosed in 1974.



An outspoken social activist, Ford, a mother of four, also brought controversy to the White House when she expressed support for abortion, military duty for women, premartial sex, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Her views contradicted those of President Ford.


He died in 2006, also at age 93. They were married in 1948.