Maryland's oldest: Staley celebrates 112 years
Maryland's oldest: Staley celebrates 112 years
Ruby Staley, a Hagerstown native and current Williamsport Retirement Village resident, turns 112 on Monday.
- Submitted photo
Ruby Staley, who turns 112 on Monday, is greeted by family members and friends during her 111th birthday party at Williamsport Retirement Village. Greeting Staley at right is Jeannie Hurley, the home's director of life enrichment. This year's celebration will be a bit altered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- File photo
Typically, Ruby Staley’s family would celebrate her landmark 112th birthday — making her the oldest known living person in Maryland — with a party.
Due to COVID-19, however, those plans have had to change a little.
Instead, some of Staley’s family members will visit her at Williamsport Retirement Village on her birthday Monday and stay separated by a special door, equipped with gloves, allowing a safe way to hug and hold hands.
Niece Jennifer Cooper said as surprising as it is that her aunt now is the oldest person alive in the state — and one of the oldest in the country — Staley herself would find the news “astonishing.”
“This is something she never would have imagined,” Cooper said. “She’s lived through so much ... and she’s just a wonderful person to know.”
Staley’s sister Elizabeth Ridenour, who is in her 90s, also plans to visit. The sisters are the last surviving of eight children born to Eva and Clarence Snyder.
Cooper said she usually visits her aunt every two weeks, but this will be the first time anyone has been able to see her since elder care facilities closed to outsiders in March.
“She’s always been in my life. Since I was born, she was there,” Cooper said. “She’s just been a wonderful, wonderful aunt and family member. She is a great example of love.”
Born in 1908 in Halfway and raised in West Virginia, Staley moved back to Washington County with her family when she was 18.
She met husband Fern at Pen Mar Park. They were married in 1933 and were together until his death in 1988. They had no children of their own.
Cooper said Staley took in three of her sisters, including Cooper’s mother, and one of her brothers when they young; they became like her children. That love extended to Staley’s nieces and nephews.
“She would have done anything in the world for you if she could. She would try to feed you to death, and even now, she still wants to share her food,” Cooper said.
Staley’s tendency to always look for the goodness in people has contributed to her longevity, Cooper said.
Jeannie Hurley, the facility’s director of life enrichment, described Staley as a “nurturing mother figure” who always has kept family at the top of her priorities.
She said the supercentenarian — anyone age 110 or older — came to Williamsport Retirement Village in August 2015 and remains a beloved resident. She also stays as involved as possible with her church and continues to indulge in her love of chocolate, though she was unable to communicate for this story.
Regional Administrator Timothy Berry said it is incredible to think Staley has lived through the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, two world wars and countless other events.
“She has something in her DNA that has allowed her at a day and time when medical remedies, especially for the first part of her life, were nonexistent or rare. She had something on her constitution that allowed her to live through that stuff,” Berry said.
With nursing homes having been hit especially hard throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he said there have been no cases at Williamsport Retirement Village.
Berry said Staley reaching 112 years old is a bright spot during these tough times.
“She’s a neat lady. It’s been an honor. We’ve never had anyone in this range at all,” Berry said. “It’s nice to have something to celebrate.”
Alexis Fitzpatrick covers the City of Hagerstown. She can be reached by email at afitzpatrick@herald-mail.com.
