Bonita Gibson calls Metro Detroit home, spending her days at a senior living facility. At 112 years of age, Bonita has watched the world transform time and again – empires falling, global conflicts escalating and resolving, computers once the size of rooms sending humans to the moon.
Through it all, Bonita is still sharp and engaged with this rapidly-evolving world, whose evolution she has witnessed for over a century. But her own free time was time spent simply, comfortably. She likes game shows and reminisces fondly over her high school sweetheart. Just what can be learned about this remarkable woman and her fondness for the uneventful in a stubbornly eventful world?
Learn about the long life of Bonita Gibson
Missouri native Bonita was born on July 4, 1911; following the 2022 passing of Irene Dunham at 114, Bonita, who now lives in Michigan, is the state’s oldest citizen. She grew up on a farm and met her future husband, Kenneth, in high school.
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“He was a senior and I was a sophomore,” she shared. Hers was a typical, uneventful life with the usual idyllic landmarks until the Great Depression. Self-reliance became the name of the game. “We had chickens and a huge garden and all kinds of fruit trees,” she recalled. “We had plenty to eat. We just didn’t have any money to spend.”
When the situation leveled off, the dust settled and Bonita could observe the changes to items like clothing and television over the decades.
Bonita Gibson watched her family and world transform
Along the way, Bonita became a mother. She only had one child, because, she explained, “The birth was exceedingly hard, so I thought, I don’t think I want to do this again.” But her son is still alive and, at 85, lives in Florida.
Sadly, her husband Kenneth is no longer alive; the two were married for 74 years before he passed. “We would go dancing every Saturday with a group of friends,” she remembered fondly of the ’50s and ’60s, her favorite time period.
But she has other enjoyments now, including talking with her friends and watching The Price is Right. As for sticking around as long as she has, she jokingly advises, “No smoking or drinking. Cut out all the good stuff, actually.”
Whose lifestyle inspires you?
