Sylvia Utz, who will be turning 110 years old on March 9, talks in her room at the Brethren Retirement Community in Greenville. She was born March 9, 1899.
GREENVILLE — Sylvia Utz helped her remarkable genes express their full potential. She neither smoked nor drank alcohol. She worked hard while growing up on a Darke County farm, milking cows and hoeing weeds. Now, even at a very advanced age, she tries to keep active. She makes her daily trek to the Brethren Retirement Community's dining room for supper with only the assistance of a walker, even if she must stop to rest along the way. "I must walk once a day ... to keep my legs a-going," she said. She still makes her bed each morning, reads large-print devotions, and circles words in jumbles of letters, called "word finds." There was nothing particularly special about her diet growing up, she said in an interview last week. "I was raised on pork, potatoes and beans." Perhaps her only peculiar habit has been her aversion to any kind of cold beverage. She prefers her water warm. Today, she can hear well and remains lucid. When asked about her family, there is no hesitation: She has three children, two of whom are living; five grandchildren, three of whom are living; seven great-grandchildren; and seven great-great-grandchildren. "I don't have an ache or a pain," she is fond of saying. And, she said, "I can eat anything." Her favorite meal is fried chicken. In her younger years, she said, "I had fried chicken from the ground up. Killed it, dressed it." Her favorite pie is black raspberry. Oddly, neither of her parents lived very long. Sylvia helped her father care for her mother, Clara, who died in 1917 of tuberculosis at age 53. Her father, Benjamin Franklin Booker, died at the age of 79. Her siblings, however, have all lived longer than her parents — in some cases, much, much longer. Her oldest sister, Delcie Cress, died at age 109 in 1998. Another sister lived to be 94. Her two brothers survived into their 80s. Doris Jean Brown, 88, of Phoenix, said mouths fly open when she tells people her mother is still living. "She's got more spunk than she used to have," said Brown, who visits her mother twice a year. "She was always kind of timid, but I think as she's gotten older, she speaks up more." Earliest memory Mrs. Utz said her earliest memory is of members of her church, the Pitsburg Church of the Brethren, picnicking on the present-day grounds of the Brethren Retirement Community with orphans and senior citizens. She figures she was 6 or 7. The orphans and senior citizens stayed in two brick buildings built in 1902, when she was 3. After standing vacant for years, they were demolished three years ago, when she was 107. She sometimes uses one of the bricks from the demolished buildings to hold open the door to her room. Today, she's known for her sharp mind and sense of humor by friends and staff at the Brethren Retirement Community, said John Warner, president and CEO. "She really is just a wonderful person," Warner said. The retirement community, home to eight centenarians, plans to hold a celebration for Mrs. Utz's 110th birthday today, complete with cake. "It's a milestone, and she should be really proud that she still has all her mind," Brown said. Secrets of the supercentenarians Only one in 5 million people lives to the age of 110. Of the 89 verified supercentenarians worldwide, 82 are women. Some researchers suspect women's second X chromosome aids their longevity. Longevity runs in the family. People whose parents live to be more than 80 years old are themselves likelier to live long lives. People born to women under 25 are twice as likely to live to 100 or longer than those born to older women. Children raised on farms in the early 1900s were found to have a greater chance of living to 100 or beyond. L. Stephen Coles, who has performed autopsies on nine supercentenarians, traced the cause of death for seven of them to a breakdown in the transport protein for thyroid hormone. This creates deposits in blood vessels that can cause them to hemorrhage, or can force the heart to work harder, causing congestive heart failure. Sources: L. Stephen Coles, executive director of the Gerontology Research Group; Natalia Gavrilova and Leonid A. Gavrilov, research associates, University of Chicago's Center on Aging Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or bsutherly@DaytonDailyNews.com.
Text: Sun,The (Baltimore, MD) - November 16, 2001 Deceased Name: Harley Utz Harley Utz, 103, who got married when rents were $19.50 a month, died Monday in Greenville, Ohio, five months after he and his wife celebrated their record 83rd anniversary. Mr. Utz worked as an accountant for a Greenville bag manufacturer until he retired in 1965.
Citation Details: From COBNews@aol.com Text: denomination and elsewhere. *Two Brethren are entering the Guinness Book of World Records. Harley and Sylvia Utz, residents of the The Brethren's Home in Greenville, Ohio, and members in Southern Ohio District, are being recognized for having the longest marriage of any living couple. The Utzes, both 102, celebrated their 83rd wedding anniversary June 15 with family members and some cake. In an Associated Press article, Sylvia Utz said, "We still live a day at a time and take whatever comes."
Text: Harley Utz - Toronto Star (11/10/2003) GREENVILLE, Ohio (Wed November 14, 2001) (AP) _ Harley Utz, who got married when rents were $19.50 a month, has died, five months after he and his wife celebrated their record 83rd anniversary. He was 103. Utz died Monday at the nursing home where he and wife Sylvia, resided. The couple got married June 15, 1918, in a simple ceremony at the home of the bride's parents in Pitsburg, a town about 15 miles northwest of Dayton. They couldn't afford a honeymoon, and moved to Dayton, where their first rent was $19.50 a month. They also lived in Rochester, N.Y., and Chicago before returning to northwestern Ohio during the Depression. Utz worked as an accountant for a Greenville bag manufacturer until he retired in 1965. At the time of their 83rd anniversary, Sylvia Utz, who is also 103, said she does not believe in divorce and has preached the importance of marriage to her three children, who all have had long marriages. She said the couple lived a ``good, clean life.' They didn't smoke or drink, and attended church regularly. ``We still live a day at a time and take whatever comes,' she said. Earlier this year, the Guinness Book of Records certified that the couple had the longest marriage of a living couple. Besides his wife, Utz is survived by two sons and a daughter.
Text: Sylvia Booker Utz Sylvia Booker Utz, of Greenville, died Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. She was 110.
Today's Dayton Daily News obituaries 10/6/09
10/5/2009 8:31:00 PM Email this article • Print this article
Oldest person in Ohio dies
Staff Report
GREENVILLE (AP) - The family of Ohio's oldest woman says she has died at age 110.
Steve Utz says Sylvia Booker Utz, his grandmother, died Monday at the Brethren Retirement Community in the western Ohio city of Greenville. Utz says he does not know what caused her death.
The Gerontology Research Group says Utz became the state's oldest person after 111-year-old Ethel Johnson of Upper Sandusky died in July.
Utz was born March 9, 1899. She married Harley Utz on June 15, 1918, before World War I ended. Their marriage lasted 83 years until his death in 2001 at age 103.
Text: GREENVILLE - Sylvia Utz, the oldest living person in Darke County, the Miami Valley and the state of Ohio, has died at the age of 110.
Utz, born March 9, 1899, in Franklin Township in Darke County, died Monday morning at the Brethren Retirement Community (BRC). She was even older than the facility where she lived for the past 12 years.
When asked by this reporter in the interview on her birthday this year what made her look so young, she replied that she washed her face with Ivory soap every day. Her longevity, she felt, was due to her living a clean life, sans smoking and drinking alcohol. And, she worked hard.
"I've done everything," she said in a previous interview. "I've milked cows. I lived on a farm when growing up."
She also became a farmer's wife. She and husband Harley Sr. were married 83 1/2 years when he died in November 2001 at the age of 103. On their 82nd wedding anniversary in 2000, they received a certificate from Guinness World Records for being the longest married couple. They were married June 15, 1918. Sylvia, the youngest of five children, outlived her parents; her husband; a son; two grandchildren; two brothers; and two sisters.
Her mother died when she was 53 of tuberculosis, and her father when he was 79. Sister, Delcie Kress, lived to be 109 until her death in 1998, and her brothers were both in their 80s when they died.
Utz graduated from grade school, but quit so that she could help her father care of her ailing mother. She drove a car until she was 98 years old, the same year she moved to the BRC.
Her sharp wit and memory were still with her at birthday time.
She asked how she was going to spend her 110th birthday, she quipped, "It's just another day as far as I'm concerned. I've had a pretty good life. I had a regular life like everybody...nothing outstanding. When I was 50 years old, my health changed. I got better after 50." Her obituary appears in today's edition of The Daily Advocate. Daily Advocate Tuesday, October 6, 2009 Sylvia Booker Utz Sylvia Booker Utz, of Greenville, died Monday, Oct. 5, 2009. She was 110.