Posted on 03/24/2004 5:30:54 AM PST by nuconvert
Obituaries in the News
Mar 24, 2004
The Associated Press
Gaspar Diaz
CAPE CORAL, Fla. (AP) - Gaspar Diaz, one of the oldest people in Florida, died Sunday, his family said. He was 109.
Florida has only three residents 110 or older.
Diaz had longevity in his genes - his grandmother lived to be 112.
Born on Jan. 18, 1895, Diaz lived in Cuba until the 1950s, leaving before the communist revolution. He moved to New York, where he lived on his own until he was 104 and his daughters convinced him to join them in Florida.
He was a wealthy owner of a jewelry business until the stock market crash in 1929, and later worked as a jack-of-all-trades. Even at 104, he would be climb ladders to fix things, his family said.
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Jack Russell
STUART, Fla. (AP) - Jack Russell, a yo-yo expert whose prowess with the toy led to the establishment of his own yo-yo company, died March 17, his family said. He was 83.
Russell built his company, The Jack Russell Co., on a marketing relationship with Coca-Cola to sell millions of yo-yos overseas with the soft-drink giant's logos. He sold more than a half-billion yo-yos marketing the Coca-Cola brand.
Russell started playing with yo-yos as a child in Kentucky. When he was still in high school, a representative from the Duncan Co., the best known yo-yo manufacturer in the United States at the time, noticed Russell's talent as he demonstrated how to use the toy at a local department store. Russell was hired, and quickly moved up in the company before deciding to start his own venture.
Only? That seems pretty good to me.
She's 347 years old.....I thought it fit nicely with the subject of the thread.
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