Amazing South Jersey Woman is NJ’s Oldest Person at 107

Lucia DeClerck says the secret to a long life is eating nine gin-soaked raisins a day. She should know, she recently celebrated her 107th birthday. The South Jersey woman is thought to be the oldest resident of New Jersey.

Jersey Shore Online caught up with DeClerck's 87-year-old son and 57-year-old granddaughter at her birthday party on January 25th when the native Hawaiin received a special birthday cake at the Mystic Meadows Rehab and Nursing Center in Little Egg Harbor.

No, they did not have 107 candles on her cake. But, there were birthday balloons and a handmade card sent over from a local school.

DeClerck lived on her own and was completely independent until she had a fall at age 100 and since then she has called Mystic Meadows her home.

She was married three times and lived through two pandemics, Covid-19 and the scourge of the Spanish Flu in 1918. Miss DeClerck is also the family matriarch of five living generations. You don't run into someone like that every day.

The article from Jersey Shore Online says her son Henry remembers being seven years old and living in California with his mom the day Honolulu was attacked in World War II, and how worried his 25-year-old mother was about her family still in Hawaii.

Here's What Was Happening in 1916, the Year Lucia DeClerck Was Born

- Due to ongoing World War I, the 1916 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany was canceled. The war would continue until 1918.

- Mr. Peanut from Planters’ brand peanuts was created by a 13-year-old  boy for a contest. He won $5.

- Norman Rockwell's first cover for the Saturday Evening Post was published

- The term ‘movie star’ originated from Paramount Pictures.

- American life expectancy was 49.9 years for males: 49.6 years, and 54.3 for females

- The President was Woodrow Wilson

- A stamp cost 2 cents and a loaf of bread was seven cents

- 8% of homes had a telephone

- Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school

Lucia DeClerck was born and is still with us today. We wish her a very Happy Birthday!