Houston Woman Born During Taft Presidency Marks 114th Birthday with Five Generations of Family
Dorothy, her 94-year-old daughter, described the achievement as "hard to believe" but a "blessing"
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A Houston woman just celebrated her 114th birthday, making her the oldest-living person in Texas, and one of the oldest-living people in the United States.
But for Elizabeth Francis, age is nothing but a number.
“I don’t know,” she told ABC affiliate KTRK-TV when she was asked about how it feels to be 114. “I just thank the good Lord for keeping me.”
Francis, who was decked out in a tiara for the occasion, celebrated her special day with five generations of her family at her bedside, including her 94-year-old daughter Dorothy Williams and 68-year-old granddaughter Ethel Harrison. Longevity, it seems, runs in her family.
A film crew from Norway and a researcher from Florida were also on hand to document the festivities, where the Houstonian told a reporter a few secrets to her longevity.
Francis doesn’t smoke or drink but said she eats “everything.”
Harrison shared that her grandmother was always one to cook at home.
“She always grew her vegetables in the backyard,” she told KTRK-TV. “I never saw her go to a fast food restaurant … like Chick-fil-A and all the places I liked to go. She never did that.”
Harrison added, “Whenever you went to her house, I don’t care what day of the week, she was cooking. So, I just think that had a lot to do with it, too. Just how she took care of her body and things like that.”
Francis was born on July 25, 1909 — when William Taft was president — in Louisiana, according to LongeviQuest, an organization which maintains the “authoritative” database of super-centenarians.
She moved to Houston as a child, and in the 1970s and early ’80s, she ran the coffee shop at KTRK-TV, per the outlet and LongeviQuest.
But through it all, her faith and family have been the headlines for Francis, who has three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren. Her sister, Bertha Johnson, died in 2011 at the age of 106, per LongeviQuest.
“It’s hard to believe, but it’s a blessing,” her daughter Dorothy told KTRK-TV. “Because she has been a wonderful mother and grandmother to all of us. She has been our backbone.”
