| Ruth Apilado | |
 | |
| Birth: | 30 April 1908 Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Death: | 15 August 2021 Federal Way, Washington, USA |
| Age: | 113 years, 107 days |
| Country: |  USA
|
| Validated | |
Ruth Mosselle Apilado (née Mays; 30 April 1908 – 15 August 2021) was an American magazine editor and supercentenarian whose age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).
Biography[]
Ruth Apilado was born as Ruth Mays in Chicago, Illinois, USA on 30 April 1908. Her parents were Stewart and Clara (née Whetsel) Mays. Her maternal grandmother had emigrated from Canada to Ohio, and was partly indigenous. Her paternal great-grandfather was a slave owner in Virginia.
Apilado attended McKinley High School, which closed in 1954. She became a teacher in 1928, after graduating from Chicago Normal College (now Chicago State University).
She began her journalistic career in 1942, when she briefly worked as an editor for the newly created Negro Youth Photo Scripts Magazine. In 1945, she wrote a letter to the editor expressing her criticism of Richard Wright's memoir Black Boy, stating that it was an inaccurate depiction of the typical childhood of African-Americans. In 1950, Apilado published a novel called The Joneses, which was about the hardships of a black family living in Chicago.
After retiring from teaching in 1973, Apilado founded America's Intercultural Magazine (AIM), a quarterly-published journal that set out to "bridge the gap between races, cultures, and religions." Already in 1948, an initiative of creating such a journal (called Freedom Press) took place, when she requested the newspaper Berkeley Daily Gazette to assist her and her associates with marketing. Her anti-racism stance was reflected in the editorials that she wrote; for example, she praised the activist and church leader Willa Saunders Jones in 1975. On 16 June 1990, she participated as a panelist at a writers' conference in Elgin Community College in Illinois.
Apilado's husband was Filipino-American Inosencio Apilado. Their marriage lasted for over 70 years until his death in 2007 at the age of 99. Their son, Myron Apilado, was the vice-president of minority affairs at University of Washington until the year 2000, as well as an editor of AIM. On 26 August 2004, at the age of 96, she was interviewed by Larry Crowe of The History Makers, a project that produces oral history material by African-Americans. Her second cousin was the reporter, newspaper journalist and radio host Lu Palmer.
At the age of 113, it was reported her memory had started to fail and she had moved into an Assisted Living Facility outside of Seattle.
Ruth Apilado died in Federal Way, Washington, USA on 15 August 2021 at the age of 113 years, 107 days. At the time of her death, she was the oldest known living resident of her state, and the oldest known living person notable for reasons other than longevity.
Her age was verified by GRG-Poland Correspondent Waclaw Jan Kroczek, et al., and (posthumously) validated by the GRG on 13 January 2023.
Gallery[]
References[]
- 2023 validations Gerontology Research Group
- Ruth Apilado Gerontology Research Group
- Ruth Apilado's Biography The HistoryMakers
- 109th Birthday Facebook Post, 30 April 2017
- 110th Birthday Facebook Post, 29 April 2018
- 112 years Facebook Comment, October 2020
- Ruth Apilado, the oldest living Chicagoan, remains a beacon of hope at age 113 Chicago Sun Times, 3 June 2021
- Obituary Mountain View
| World’s Oldest Verified Living Notable People for Reasons Other than Age (V • E) |
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Manolita Perez Torres• Leila Denmark • Frederica Sagor Maas• Carla Porta Musa• Alexander Imich • Amelia Robinson • Juliana Koo • Zoltan Sarosy • Elza Brandeisz • Qin Hanzhang • Ruth Apilado • Stanislaw Kowalski • Marita Camacho Quiros |