{"id":13040,"date":"2023-08-23T10:40:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T14:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=13040"},"modified":"2024-08-02T08:58:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T12:58:50","slug":"114-year-old-texas-woman-thanks-god-for-her-long-life-this-is-a-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/08\/114-year-old-texas-woman-thanks-god-for-her-long-life-this-is-a-blessing.html","title":{"rendered":"115-Year-Old Texas Woman Thanks God For Her Long Life: &#8216;This is A Blessing&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13046\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13046\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/08\/elizabeth-francis-credit-ktrk-tv.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13046\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/08\/elizabeth-francis-credit-ktrk-tv.png\" alt=\"elizabeth francis\" width=\"768\" height=\"426\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13046\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">KTRK-TV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A Houston woman recently celebrated her 115th birthday, making her the oldest living person in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Elizabeth Francis is part of an elite group of \u201csupercentenarians,\u201d or people who have lived over 100 years. More than 97,000 people in the United States are classified as centenarians, but there are far fewer supercentenarians, according to information from the World Economic Forum. Francis\u2019 granddaughter, Ethel Harrison, told Fox News Digital, \u201cShe\u2019s just always enjoyed giving. I remember whenever we had a ceremony or if we had an event, she was our biggest cheerleader.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harrison continued, \u201cShe was always there, and she was always encouraging you to go on. Her main objective is to treat people the way you would want to be treated. I think that\u2019s something that kind of stuck with me all my life.\u201d Born in Louisiana on July 25, 1909, Francis has lived through two world wars and global pandemics. She never drove a car but worked outside the home, running the coffee shop at ABC\u2019s Channel 13 in Houston during the 1970s and 80s.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fkH0psOwdLY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/abc13.com\/oldest-person-in-texas-elizabeth-francis-how-old-is-the-second-american\/13626081\/\">Francis attributes her long life to the Lord<\/a>. She told Fox News Digital, \u201cJust the Lord working with me and keeping me here.\u201d She said she used to walk for exercise, ate plenty of fresh vegetables and chicken to keep healthy and avoided \u201cthe bad stuff\u201d like drinking and smoking. \u201cShe had her own garden, and she would eat whatever vegetables she raised, like mustard greens,\u201d Harrison said.\u00a0She also liked to share her home and food with others.<\/p>\n<p>Harrison said, \u201cOne quality is that she was always giving. She was always cooking, and someone was always at the house eating. There was always food on the table. The gentleman that she actually rented her home from would\u00a0come and eat breakfast\u00a0over there in the mornings. She also shared whatever she grew in the garden with her neighbors.\u201d Francis lives at home with her daughter Dorothy Williams, who is 94. She has\u00a0three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren\u00a0and four great-great-grandchildren, all of whom were there for her big birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Born during the time of President William Howard Taft, when 90 percent of U.S. babies were born at home, and women and black citizens could not vote, Francis\u2019 life has spanned significant historical events. Her longevity is seen as a blessing by her family, who describe her as a wonderful mother and grandmother and their \u201cbackbone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked why she\u2019d lived so long, she simply said, \u201cThis is a blessing, the Lord\u2019s blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Houston woman recently celebrated her 115th birthday, making her the oldest living person in the United States. Elizabeth Francis is part of an elite group of \u201csupercentenarians,\u201d or people who have lived over 100 years. More than 97,000 people in the United States are classified as centenarians, but there are far fewer supercentenarians, according&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":13046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[741,4,12],"tags":[2057,2060],"class_list":["post-13040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-inspiring-messages","category-inspiring-people","tag-supercentenarians","tag-thanking-god"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>115-Year-Old Texas Woman Thanks God For Her Long Life: &#039;This is A Blessing&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Houston woman recently celebrated her 114th birthday. 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