By Denise O’ Donoghue
In just a few hours, the oldest living person born in Ireland will make history and become the longest living Irish person ever.
Kathleen Hayes Rollins Snavely turned 113 last month, making her the oldest Irish person alive today.
Tonight, she will break a record by becoming the oldest person ever to be born in Ireland, overtaking Annie Scott, who was 113 years and 37 days old when she died in 1996.
Clare-native Kathleen was born in Feakle in 1902. She emigrated to America in 1921.
Today, Kathleen is "hard of hearing but clear of mind" and has lived an extraordinary life.
She has been a resident of The Centers at St. Camillus in Syracuse, New York for a short number of years.
Kathleen marked her landmark birthday with a small party in her nursing home, which was attended by family and close friends.
Kathleen with friends at her 113th birthday party. Photo: Laurie Black
"I thought it was intimate and nice, right at the home where she is – a mixture of people who have known her for years, people from the Francis House, Sean Kirst and his wife,” said Dave Liddell, a friend of Kathleen's at the party.
Lidell has known Kathleen for 30 years and says "once she opens up and becomes part of the group she enjoys expanding and telling stories.
"She’s warm and cheerful and thoughtful of others, that comes through in a lot of the things she says.
"She’s very intelligent even though her education was somewhat limited, leaving Ireland so young, and she’s still sharp as a tack even though she has relinquished some of her physical vitality.
"And she’s Irish through and through."
Kathleen enjoying a special birthday cocktail from Karen White. Photo: Laurie Black
Kathleen doesn't like sensationalizing or being defined by her age.
Having reached 113, Kathleen is often asked about her secret to longevity - it is a subject she hates to discuss.
"I get so tired of people asking me about my secret. I've got no secret," she told Sean Kirst of Syracuse.com.
"You live and you do it the best you can."
Kathleen celebrating her 113th birthday. Photo: Laurie Black
She finds questions about her age can often be rudely delivered.
"Someone came up to me in the cafeteria and said to me, 'How old are you anyway?' I said, 'I'm old enough to have some manners.’”
Kathleen’s memories of the past 113 years focus on her personal life, rather than historic events.
"I've forgotten a lot of history," she says.
"I've been living my whole life. I didn't think I'd need to remember these things."
However, she remembers the night she left Ireland and the advice she gave to her two younger brothers: “Work hard and you be careful about drinking and grow up to be someone to be proud of."
Many decades later, she offers new advice: "You can't go through life thinking you're better than the other guy."
Last year, her adopted home of Syracuse declared March 17 Kathleen Snavely Day, to honour the popular resident.
Back in Clare, Peggy Hayes, the widow of one of Kathleen's cousins, says she was told that Kathleen "left young and did well, and that she was from a long-living family".
She was born on February 16, 1902 to farmer and publican Patrick Hayes and his wife Ellen.
Kathleen's birth certificate
Kathleen worked as a business apprentice in Ireland, before boarding a ship in 1921 and sailing from Cobh to Ellis Island at 19-years-old and with just $25 in her pocket.
She left the country in the midst of the War of Independence to live with her mother's brother, Jeremiah Moroney, in Syracuse.
She worked at a state school for people with developmental disabilities and then found employment at E.W. Edwards Department Store.
She later set up a shop with her first husband, Roxie E. Rollins.
"Neither of us had a formal business education," she said
"We learned on the job, through experience. If you have a feeling for management and enjoy it, experience will give you the skills."
She says they "were very much in love. It was the secret of our success."
Roxie died in 1968. In December, 2000, she honoured his memory by making a gift of $1 million to the Syracuse University School of Management.
“I can’t think of anything that would please him more than supporting a cause that would help other ambitious young people like us.”
Two years after Roxie's death, 68-year-old Kathleen married her second husband, Jesse Clark Snavely, Jr.
Via Irish Examiner