Meet the new holder of the title of oldest American and she is a jersey girl

 

Adele Dunlap of Hunterdon County became the oldest person in the United States after the death of Goldie Michelson of Worcester, Mass.

She was born Dec. 12, 1902, in Newark.

She is now 113 years, 7 months and 1 week old.

When she was asked what it meant to be an American, she said: “Well, I’ve never been anything else.”

Further proof of Dunlap’s age emerged from a drawer in the living room of her son Earl’s home in Clinton. Her diploma from South Side High School in Newark is dated June 27, 1921 — 95 years ago. Her sheepskin from the New Jersey State Normal School at Newark, the predecessor of Kean University, bears a date of June 29, 1923.

Dunlap, who arrived at Country Arch at 99½ and is sometimes called Ms. Adele, offered no explanation for her astonishingly long life.

In a statement made by Earl Dunlap “I don’t know, it’s hard to say,” Earl Dunlap said. “She never went out jogging or anything like that. She’s not really thin, but she never weighed more than 140 pounds. She smoked, and when my father had his first heart attack, they both stopped. I think she ate anything she wanted.”

She taught in the Kearny school system for several years before marrying Earl Dunlap Sr. and settling down to run the home and raise three children. Earl Sr. who died in1963 at the age of 61 worked for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in New York City.

Adele Dunlap stayed  as a widow, traveling with friends to Maine and Florida and attending Catholic Mass on Sundays. She was still driving when, at 87, she came to live with son, Earl, and his wife, Barbara.

Dunlap’s other son lives in Florida; her daughter died in her 40s. She has seven grandchildren (the oldest is 62), 16 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

 wishing her long life!