------------------------------------
Notes on People; A Longevity Secret
When he turned 106 yesterday, James Wylie Mahaffey wasn't able to say much because of the effects of a stroke he suffered some years ago, but his visiting daughter had a lot to say about his longevity. She said he's lived to be the nation's second oldest veteran because of his natural immunity to a number of diseases.
Mr. Mahaffey, a wheelchair patient at the Veterans Administration hospital in Columbia, S.C., first came to the attention of Army doctors in 1898, said his daughter, Sybil Payne. They noticed he seemed to have a built-in immunity to yellow fever, she said, so they used the then 22-year-old private as a nurse for fellow soldiers who were fever victims during the Spanish-American War.
And, said Mrs. Payne, ''back during the big flu epidemic of 1918, everybody seemed to have the flu but him,'' which didn't surprise anyone because by then he had a reputation for not getting sick, even with common colds.
Mr. Mahaffey is only a few months younger than the nation's oldest veteran, Harry J. Chaloner, who lives in a Bay Pines, Fla., nursing home.
(The New York Times - Wednesday, January 28, 1981 - by Albin Krebs and Robert McG. Thomas Jr.)
------------------------------------
Notes on People; A Longevity Secret
When he turned 106 yesterday, James Wylie Mahaffey wasn't able to say much because of the effects of a stroke he suffered some years ago, but his visiting daughter had a lot to say about his longevity. She said he's lived to be the nation's second oldest veteran because of his natural immunity to a number of diseases.
Mr. Mahaffey, a wheelchair patient at the Veterans Administration hospital in Columbia, S.C., first came to the attention of Army doctors in 1898, said his daughter, Sybil Payne. They noticed he seemed to have a built-in immunity to yellow fever, she said, so they used the then 22-year-old private as a nurse for fellow soldiers who were fever victims during the Spanish-American War.
And, said Mrs. Payne, ''back during the big flu epidemic of 1918, everybody seemed to have the flu but him,'' which didn't surprise anyone because by then he had a reputation for not getting sick, even with common colds.
Mr. Mahaffey is only a few months younger than the nation's oldest veteran, Harry J. Chaloner, who lives in a Bay Pines, Fla., nursing home.
(The New York Times - Wednesday, January 28, 1981 - by Albin Krebs and Robert McG. Thomas Jr.)
------------------------------------
------------------------------------
Notes on People; A Longevity Secret
When he turned 106 yesterday, James Wylie Mahaffey wasn't able to say much because of the effects of a stroke he suffered some years ago, but his visiting daughter had a lot to say about his longevity. She said he's lived to be the nation's second oldest veteran because of his natural immunity to a number of diseases.
Mr. Mahaffey, a wheelchair patient at the Veterans Administration hospital in Columbia, S.C., first came to the attention of Army doctors in 1898, said his daughter, Sybil Payne. They noticed he seemed to have a built-in immunity to yellow fever, she said, so they used the then 22-year-old private as a nurse for fellow soldiers who were fever victims during the Spanish-American War.
And, said Mrs. Payne, ''back during the big flu epidemic of 1918, everybody seemed to have the flu but him,'' which didn't surprise anyone because by then he had a reputation for not getting sick, even with common colds.
Mr. Mahaffey is only a few months younger than the nation's oldest veteran, Harry J. Chaloner, who lives in a Bay Pines, Fla., nursing home.
(The New York Times - Wednesday, January 28, 1981 - by Albin Krebs and Robert McG. Thomas Jr.)
------------------------------------
Notes on People; A Longevity Secret
When he turned 106 yesterday, James Wylie Mahaffey wasn't able to say much because of the effects of a stroke he suffered some years ago, but his visiting daughter had a lot to say about his longevity. She said he's lived to be the nation's second oldest veteran because of his natural immunity to a number of diseases.
Mr. Mahaffey, a wheelchair patient at the Veterans Administration hospital in Columbia, S.C., first came to the attention of Army doctors in 1898, said his daughter, Sybil Payne. They noticed he seemed to have a built-in immunity to yellow fever, she said, so they used the then 22-year-old private as a nurse for fellow soldiers who were fever victims during the Spanish-American War.
And, said Mrs. Payne, ''back during the big flu epidemic of 1918, everybody seemed to have the flu but him,'' which didn't surprise anyone because by then he had a reputation for not getting sick, even with common colds.
Mr. Mahaffey is only a few months younger than the nation's oldest veteran, Harry J. Chaloner, who lives in a Bay Pines, Fla., nursing home.
(The New York Times - Wednesday, January 28, 1981 - by Albin Krebs and Robert McG. Thomas Jr.)
------------------------------------
Family Members
Parents
Siblings
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
