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Phyllis Ridgway
Phyllis Ridgway
Ridgway on her 113th birthday in 2020
Birth: 10 March 1907
Lincolnshire, England, UK
Death: 4 June 2021
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Age: 114 years, 86 days
Country: United Kingdom UK CanadaCAN
Validated

Phyllis Ena "Gram" Ridgway (neé Pickwell; 10 March 1907 – 4 June 2021) was a British-born Canadian supercentenarian whose age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group. She was the oldest known living person in Canada for the last two years of her life. She was the last surviving person born in the United Kingdom in 1907.

Biography[]

Ridgway was born as Phyllis Ena Pickwell in Lincolnshire, England on 10 March 1907. Ridgway emigrated from England to Canada with her parents and three sisters in 1923. Ridgway would later marry Ernest Ridgway (1904-1987) in 1932, with whom she had one son, Ron (1935-2003). Ridgway worked in a department store in Toronto, Ontario, Canada before retiring in 1972 at age 65. She was married to her husband for 54 years until his death in 1987.

Ridgway became the oldest known living person in Canada following the death of 112 year-old Sarah Patenaude-Bruyere on 17 February 2020.

On her 113th birthday she attributed her longevity to apple cider vinegar and honey, stating “Apple cider vinegar and honey, that’s why I’ve lived so long."

Ridgway lived in her ancestral home reportedly still living independently at the time of her 114th birthday for 80 years, but she subsequently moved into Bridgepoint Active Healthcare in Toronto some point after her final 114th birthday in the Spring of 2021.

In March 2021, Ridgway celebrated her 114th birthday, becoming the first British-born person to do so since Ethel Lang in 2014, and the first Canada resident to do so since Ellen Gibb in 2019. Three days after her 114th birthday, she received her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Phyllis Ridgway died at Bridgepoint Active Healthcare in Toronto on 4 June 2021, aged 114 years, 86 days. She was survived by a daughter-in-law, four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

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References[]


Canada's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (VE)

Flore BelandEmma BinghamHerman Smith-JohannsenAgnes MunceNellie ThompsonAlice Sjoquist • Lillian RossMarie-Louise Meilleur • Marie-Louise Meunier • Maria Mallozzi • Zelda McCague • Fanny Martland • Evangeline SaulnierAnne Samson • Julie Winnefred Bertrand • Jennie Fitzgerald • Margaret Fitzgerald • Pearl LutzkoCora Hansen • Yvonne Lamoureux • Merle Barwis • Colombe Benoit-Leclerc • Orma Slack • Marguerite Wabano • Lilian Cornell • Ellen Gibb • Sarah Patenaude-Bruyere • Phyllis Ridgway • Cecile Klein • Shige Mineshiba • Mabel MahHelen Doan

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