from the USTA Communications Department
Columbus, OH — Mary Josephine Ray, certified as the oldest person living in the United States, died March 7, 2010, at 114 years and 294 days old.
The Gerontology Research Group says that until her death, Mrs. Ray was the oldest person in the United States and the second-oldest in the world. She was also recorded as the oldest person ever to live in New Hampshire.
Mrs. Ray was born May 17, 1895 in Bloomfield, Prince Edward Island, Canada. She moved to the United States at age 3. She lived for 60 years in Anson, Maine. She lived in Florida, Massachusetts and elsewhere in New Hampshire before she moved to Westmoreland in 2002 to be near her children.
Her late husband, Walter, owned horses starting in the 1940s and her son, Bob, owned, trained, and drove for a few years starting in the mid-1940s. Grandsons Jim and Matt are in the business also.
Mrs. Ray is survived by two sons, eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.