Age 112 Is a Long Life to Ponder

Onie Ponder of Ocala, Florida passed away this past Friday January 31 at the age of 112.



Think about it. Onie Ponder was born on September 3, 1898 during the horse and buggy days. Today she has a Wikipedia page.

Onie was 13 when the Titanic sank, 16 at the outbreak of World War I, and 22 when women were granted the right to vote. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 that ushered in the Great Depression occurred when she was 31, The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor when she was 43.

Onie was 65 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. I wonder if she bristled at his 1960 inauguration speech when he spoke of the torch being passed to a "new generation of Americans born in this century?" That was half a century ago and she apparently was not quite ready to pass the torch.

The year Onie was born, the U.S. had 45 states and William McKinley was President. She has lived under 20 Presidents. In the last Presidential election, she is reported to have voted for Barack Obama. Only the butterflies know who she voted for in the disputed Florida recount of 2000.

Onie lived most of her life in Ocala, Florida but did spend two years working as a bookkeeper for Kidder, Peabody & Co. in Boston.