3/27/2009 10:06:00 AM Oldest Nebraskan celebrating birthday
DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTOLeona Gleed of Norfolk is currently the oldest Nebraskan and oldest singleton twin living in the world. She will turn 109 on Saturday.
The resident of The Meadows retirement village, who will turn 109 on Saturday, March 28, was honored last June for being the oldest person in the Rebekah Lodge in the world and for her 85 years of membership.
"They had to make a special pin because they didn't have one," said Jan Nixon, director of The Meadows.
The Rebekahs are the female branch of the International Order of Odd Fellows, which is an international service club.
Gleed also has belonged to the United Methodist Church for more than 90 years.
Nixon said Gleed has been looking forward to her birthday. She sometimes gets tired in the afternoon and some days are better than others.
E.A. Kral of Wilber, who is a retired school teacher and researcher, said Gleed is now the oldest person living in Nebraska.
She is a twin and is believed to be the oldest twin in the world. Her twin brother, Leo, died in 1990.
They were two of 11 children born to Edward and Sarah (McMillin) Adams, on March 28, 1900, near Page in Holt County. Her father operated the Chambers State Bank until his death in 1941.
Kral said Gleed married rancher Lloyd Gleed on Feb. 14, 1926, at Dakota City. They lived on a ranch west of Chambers where they farmed and raised three daughters.
After her husband died in 1963 after undergoing surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, she studied library science courses at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1964 to 1966. She then returned to Holt County to live in O'Neill. In August 1992, she moved to The Meadows.
According to the Gerontology Research Group's Web site, Gleed is the oldest living singleton twin in the world and the sixth oldest singleton twin in history.
A singleton twin is a surviving twin, once one of the pair has died.
Mary Murphy Crombie, who was born at Calhoun, Ill., is the oldest twin in history. She lived to be 113 years and 78 days before she died in 2003.
In an earlier interview with the Daily News, Gleed said she wasn't blessed with good health as a child.
"I never had good health when I was a child," she said in 2007. "I had typhoid fever and a lot of sickness."
Gleed said she can remember meeting William Jennings Bryan, the one-time presidential candidate from Nebraska and great orator.
Gleed was a student in Lincoln at the time where she and her twin brother, Leo, were attending the Nebraska School of Business.
Gleed said growing up before television and radio, they used lamps at night and played checkers.
"In our family, checkers was a favorite game," she said. "We all played checkers."
In recent years, Jan Nixon of The Meadows has organized a gathering of centenarians from Norfolk and Northeast Nebraska at The Meadows. Often times, the gathering was around Gleed's birthday.
Nixon said there is no gathering of centenarians planned this year, but an open house was held for Gleed on Thursday afternoon.
Some of her grandchildren also are planning to be with her this weekend, Nixon said.
Along with her three daughters, Gleed has 14 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and 20 great-great-grandchildren.
Reader Comments
Posted: Saturday, March 28, 2009
Article comment by:
Lynn Ferguson
The family of Edna Saltonstall, a former resident of The Meadows want to wish Leona a very Happy Birthday. She was and still is an inspiration to all of us.
Posted: Friday, March 27, 2009
Article comment by:
Mary Allison Forsyth
