He never forgot his alma mater ...

He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, majoring in poker.


Read more about James Needham here.


(H/T to Thom Forbes)

Plus, she hated her name so she changed it, at 81

She had an active and happy social life during her youth from which she would recall stories of picture-show dates at the Rivoli or the Opera House Theater, parties at the Rutgers fraternity houses, sodas at the Roger Smith Hotel, and canoe rides on Farrington Lake.

Read more about this sweetheart of a gal here.

Expiration dates? Suggestions ...

She was an avid reader and if you ever noticed a tiny pencil mark on the first few pages of a library book from the Hudson Library, that meant she had read that one. Rita was a lover of nature and enjoyed feeding "her" duck, Dovey. To Rita, expiration dates on food packages were only a suggestion. She loved to shop, and would hit the clearance rack at JC Penney with a vengeance. There was never a piece of chocolate or dessert she didn't like and she truly believed there was always room for ice cream.

Ah, Rita Brooks.

A blue-ribbon bonsai

Mrs. Gibbs began growing bonsai trees with her daughter.

“Growing bonsai is something you do for decades if you get the chance,’’ said her friend Gail Docktor of Ipswich. “She knew the irony of it. She did it in hope.’’

Mrs. Gibbs’s bonsai tree won a blue ribbon last year in a category for novice growers at the Topsfield Fair.

Rebecca Richardson Gibbs was only 44.

But, wait, there's more!

An avid biker, political observer, flatulator, and cinephile, Mr. Amland was born in Iowa City, Iowa, on the eighth of February, 1931.

More things you never knew about David Amland.

Sounds like a fine way to wind things up ...

In her later years, suffering from dementia, she commented while sitting by the fire, "I do not know where I am or why I am here, but isn't it a nice place?" Contentment found.

Read more about this British Columbia pioneer.

Mary J. Ray, 114 years, 294 days

“If you shook her hand she would pull you in close," Ray said. “She was strong. And her mind was sharp as a tack."

Read all about the life and death of the oldest person in the U.S.