EMMANUEL, Theresa: Died 1988

EMMANUEL, HUDSON, SCHMIDT, NELSON

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 2/29/2024 at 09:06:28

DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER
May 8, 1988/7B

Theresa Emmanuel, 110, oldest Iowa resident dies

By Deanna Cox
Register Staff Writer

Theresa Emanuel, who since February 1986 had the distinction of being Iowa's oldest citizen, died Friday at the age of 110 of Ottumwa.

"Ever since she turned 100, she said she felt like the good Lord forgot where he put her," said her son, Dennis, 71, a retired doctor from Ottumwa who now lived in Sun City West, Ariz. "But she felt fortunate to live as long as she did."

Mrs. Emanuel died of a heart attack at the Ottumwa nursing home where she lived for the past 10 years. Dennis said his mother had been unable to talk since a stroke two years ago, but she knew she was Iowa's top centenarian, said her son. "She was proud of it," he said.

Mrs. Emmanuel lived in Iowa most of her life. She had been a cook at a sorority house in Iowa City and ran a boarding house for relatives of patients at University Hospitals.

In 1965 she went to live with her daughter, Winifred Hudson, 85, in Milwaukee for five years. Besides Dennis and Winifred, Mrs. Emmanuel had a son, William, who died when he was in the 60s. Her husband, George, died when he was 72 in the late 1950s.

Mrs. Emanuel was 108 when she became Iowa's oldest citizen following the death of Amelia Schmidt of Guttenberg, who died at the age of 110 in 1986. Mrs. Emanuel and Schmidt were less than a year from becoming Iowa's oldest citizen ever, a record held by Charlie Nelson of Guthrie Center, who died on month before is 111th birthday in 1978.

In addition to her children, Mrs. Emmanuel is survived by 10 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and 28 great-great-grandchildren.

A rosary will be recited today at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at St. Mary's Church in Ottumwa and burial will be at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Iowa City.

Source: "Scrapbook 1986 - 1988", Pg. 507
Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, Van Buren Co., IA