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Established 1948   Elzona Maxey 30 November 1875 - 25 April 1988 John Benton Maxey 25 July 1867 - 3 December 1959 112-Year-Old Atoka Woman Dies Oklahoma City (AP) - A funeral service was conducted Thursday for Elzona Maxey of Atoka, who was possibly the oldest person in the world at the age of 112. Cyd Smith, assistant editor of the Guiness Book of World Records, said Thursday that Mrs. Maxey "was the oldest person on whom we had documented proof." There were other people who claimed to be older, "but we don't have any documentation." Mr. Smith said. When Mrs. Maxey first left her native Kentucky for the Southwest, she rode in a horse drawn wagon and crossed the Red River by boat. She took her first airplane ride when she was 89, and called it an exciting experience. Her daughter, Margaret Hames of Atoka, said Mrs. Maxey died on Monday at her Atoka home. Mrs. Maxey was born Elzona Selby near Jamestown in Russell Co., Kentucky, November 30, 1875. She and her husband, J.B. Maxey, moved to Oklahoma in 1915 and had lived in Atoka since 1919. Mrs. Maxey's birth was recorded in the family Bible along with those of other generations. In addition, her older brother had signed a sworn affidavit in 1945 in which he listed her age at that time. As a result of an Associated Press story about her mother on February 25, Mrs. Hames said "we heard from people all over the United States. We heard from cousins in Kentucky we didn't know we had." Mrs. Hames said the earlier story "brought together people we hadn't heard from in years." Mrs. Maxey was making hats in a millinery shop in Sherman, Texas when she met the man who would become her husband. They were married in 1908 and he died in 1959. Mrs. Maxey in her later years made her home with her daughter. Mrs. Hames said that her mother was in "pretty good health" and read and watched television until she was 110. She said that in the last years, her mother's eyesight and hearing were virtually gone.  Cedarlawn Cemetery Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |