Emma Carroll

Emma Vironia Carroll (née Lanman; May 18, 1895 - July 10, 2007) was, at age 112, Iowa's oldest person since the death of 111-year-old Hazel Blecha on October 29, 2006. She was the 10th oldest validated American living in the United States, and the 22nd oldest validated worldwide at the time of her death. Also, she was the Guinness recordholder for the oldest person to ride in a hot air balloon at 109 years and 70 days old in 2004.
Biography
Carroll was born in Iowa in 1895 in Davis County to Elias Sylvester and Margaret Lynch Lanman. She had four sisters, Effie Deborn, Cordie McClure, Lillie Fite and Helen Gideon; and a brother, Marvin Lanman.
Personal life
On New Year's Day 1914, she married her longtime husband Clair C. Carroll (October 8, 1893 - March 7, 1994) of 80 years. The two first met where Clair's older sister was teaching. The couple had resided in Davis County, Iowa during the 1910s. Emma's first ballot was for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1920. They had lived on a farm in Van Buren County, Iowa during the 1930s. The Carroll's moved to Ottumwa, Iowa in the 1940s during World War II and settled there.
No matter how old the kids are, a mother still worries about her children, he had emphysema and had an attack recently that worried me, she said. Her son was 93 at the time of his mother's death, she was 19 when she gave birth to him, and he lived in a Bloomfield nursing home. The interviewer asked is he still your little boy? “Oh, yes,” she said.
She helped the Care Center by folding laundry twice a week. During an interview in early 2007 with the Ottumwa Courier she had stated that "I like to work and work with my hands. It keeps so I can use them, keeps them limber," she said while flexing her fingers, "I think work doesn't hurt anybody."<ref name="died"/> Emma studied the Bible with her weekly study group.<ref name="died"/> She said that she took naps often while sitting in her favorite chair.<ref name="died"/>
Carroll died in her nursing home in 2007 at Vista Woods Care Center in Ottumwa. She was survived by her two out of four sons Noble and Lowell and was predeceased by two other sons, Emma had many nephews and nieces as well as 7 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, 31 great-great-grandchildren and three great-great-great-grandchildren; at the time of her death.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu