Bonita Gibson

	Bonita Gibson
	; Gibson at the age of 110
Birth:	4 July 1911; Kansas, USA
Age:	113 years, 155 days
Country:	USA
	Validated

Bonita Gibson (née Spear; born 4 July 1911) is an American supercentenarian whose age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG). She is currently the oldest known living person in Michigan.

Biography[]

Gibson was born in Kansas, USA on 4 July 1911 to John Franklin and Ella Mabel (Miller) Spear.

Gibson remembers the Spanish Flu Pandemic and one of her brothers going to fight in World War 1 and receiving letters from the front line. Gibson also survived whooping cough as a child.

In April 1930, the height of the great depression, Gibson got married to Kenneth Gibson in Oregon, Missouri. Two years later in June 1932, the couple made their way to Idaho, where her husband's uncle, who was involved in the wheat growing business, lived. Gibson remembers sleeping in a tent after being unable to afford rent and walking one and a half miles to get to work. They had one son, Kenneth Richard, born in January 1937. Several years later, the couple moved to Newdale, Idaho, where her husband became involved in the potato business. The couple moved to Idaho Falls in 1946, where her husband continued in the potato business, eventually entering into a potato brokerage operation until he retired in 1977. Her husband died in October 2003.

At the age of 99, Gibson travelled by plane to San Diego, California, her first plane ride. She also went to a casino for the first time at the age of 106.

Gibson moved into Waltonwood Carriage park in Canton, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at the age of 102. She still gets her hair done once a week and chooses her own clothes.

In 2020, at the age of 109, Gibson survived COVID-19, making her one of the oldest known survivors of the disease.

She became the oldest known living person in Michigan, following the death of Irene Dunham on 1 May 2022.

Gibson’s age was verified by Waclaw Jan Kroczek, Oliver Trim, and Robert Young, and validated by the GRG on 4 May 2023, two months before her 112th birthday.

Bonita Gibson currently lives in Canton, Michigan, at the age of 113 years, 155 days.