Families and Longevity

It seems that the “long-life” genes reside among some families, but not others.

Most of us have four major families in our backgrounds, coming from each of our grandparents.  In my case, it is the Jeffreys and Crews families on my paternal side and the Moore and Pearce families on my maternal side.  If I could choose just one, it would be the Pearce ancestry!

 

Rosa Pearce Moore

My grandmother, Rosa Pearce Moore, and her siblings:

Rosa Pearce [Moore] died at age 98.

James Obadiah Pearce died at age 92.

Thomas Anderson Pearce died at age 81.

Hubert Earl Pearce died at age 93.

Lula Pearce [Jones] died at age 92.

Their father, George Pearce died in 1919 at age 83.

My mother, Sara Moore Jeffreys died at age 86.

The oldest living member of this family currently is Perry Robert [“Bob”] Langston, Jr. currently living in Arizona at age 84. He was employed by technological giant IBM!

 

Bob Langston

Rosa Pearce [Moore] lived from May 30, 1878 to February 14, 1977.  In terms of transportation, she lived from the “horse and buggy” to the “man on the moon.”  Only major form of transportation that pre-dated her was the steam locomotive and transcontinental trains starting on May 10, 1869.  Rosa was an adult before the first automobile came along, which she became a passenger in on a trip to Florida in 1963. During her lifetime, the Wright brothers  flew for the first time on the coast of NC, jet planes were developed to fly anywhere on the planet, and rocket travel was developed to escape our planet. Man walked on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Rosa Pearce Moore's 91st birthday in 1969.

Rosa Pearce Moore outlived four of her five children.  She was a widow of almost 52 years after the death of her husband, William Phillip Moore, in 1925.  Oh and by the way, she also did not take statins or any other medications for that matter.  She loved vegetables, and though not a vegetarian, Mother said she was not a big meat eater.  Chicken and pork, milk and dairy products (especially churned butter) were always available.  She baked tons of biscuits and cornbread during her lifetime mostly using lard.