GULFPORT -- Just ran across an old set of obituaries that featured a gentleman reported to have been 111 years old when he passed away in May 2005.
Wow!
The obit failed to mention an exact date for the death of Mearly Ratliff, but it said he was born Nov. 10, 1893, in Tylertown, Miss. So was American novelist John P. Marquand, who died in 1960.
A little over a month later, on Dec. 26, Chinese leader Mao Zedong was born. He died in 1976.
During that year, on Jan. 17, the U.S. Marines intervened in Hawaii, resulting in the overthrow of the government of Queen Liliuokalani. On Feb. 1, Thomas A. Edison finished construction of the first motion picture studio in West Orange, N.J.
President Benjamin Harris was succeeded by Stephen Grover Cleveland on March 4; the first recorded college basketball game was played April 8, 1893, in Beaver Fall, Pa., between the Geneva College Covenanters and the New Brighton YMCA; The 1893 World's Fair, also known as the World's Columbian Expostion, opened to the public in Chicago on May1. It closed Oct.
On May 10, the United States Supreme Court legally declared the tomato to be a vegetable. Actually, it's a fruit.
More historical events, births and deaths during 1893 may be found at www.wikipedia.org.
Interestingly enough, searches for information about another centenarian yielded a site that named Mr. Ratliff and a number of others beyond 99 years on a Table of False and Exaggerated Claims.
So there's some doubt?
Proven? Unproven? by the Table. Or is the Table itself false in its claim?
Curious.
And this site has, at this point, made no claim either way. We can only report what was written in the obit found in a reputable publication in South Mississippi.
According to the obituary, Mr. Ratliff was a member of Mt. Bethel Baptist Church in Gulfport. He was retired as a laborer from the railroad where he worked for about 35 years.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Pearly Ratliff, parents York Ratliff and Ada Danosas Ratliff, son R.C. Ratliff, and 22 siblings.
That many brothers and sisters deserve a Wow! all by themselves.
In 2005, Ratliff's survivors included sons Elder Henry Ratliff and John Henry Ratliff, both of Houston, Texas; seven daughters including Arvyzena (Otha) Sallis, Bertha Hudnall, Ernesting Edwards, Gladys Herrien, Bobbie Briggs, all of Gulfport, and Christina Briggs and Mearline Dugar, also of Houston, Texas, and 38 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, eight great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great-grandchild.
Funeral services were held May 26, 2005, at New Home Church of Christ Holiness USA in Jayess, Miss., with burial at the church cemetery.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI am actually one of his 11 great grandchildren which the acticle makes mention. I have to say that throughout the years, birthdays and holidays it was never a secret how old our granpa was. It's a well known fact to the neighborhood in which he lived as well as the people that knew him. In this case, the valildity of his age has been solidified through my grandmother. Believe me, she wouldn't lie for anyone - no matter how much it hurts. To give some lighthearted insight into the man, I'll share a fond memory. The man was the epitomy of spry and spunky - even at 111. He drove until 88 when my father had to physically take the car away from his apatment so he wouldn't drive. His main concern was the inability to get to his girlfriends house. That was my granpa!
Arvyzena Robey-Shanafelt