Gerontology: Secret of Long Life

(2 of 2)

Records & Recollections. How can a centenarian prove his age? In most cases the only evidence is his own word. Though some Western European countries began keeping good birth records in the 18th century, the U.S. was slow to follow. Massachusetts began in 1841, followed by other New England states. Significantly, there are no reports of incredibly advanced age from areas that keep good birth records. Dr. Belle Boone Beard, a University of Georgia anthropologist, lists 28 ways of proving age. They vary in reliability from college-entrance or graduation records to marriage, insurance and naturalization records. For former slaves like Charlie Smith, Dr. Beard recognizes ships' manifests, bills of sale, deeds and wills as at least helpful evidence.

So far, none of these records has documented the survival of a U.S. citizen past 111 years. Nor have the incredible assertions of such hardy Soviet peasants as Shirali Muslimov, who claims to be 161 or more, been borne out. One likely reason for their confusion is that in parts of Central Asia years are computed in twelve-year cycles, each year being named for an animal. Thus a man born in the year of the horse might have been born in 1846 or 1858 or 1870—and not understand the difference in time.

The inability to document claims of extreme age helps establish a useful outer limit for doctors who deal with the aged—and in no way detracts from the charm of such local characters as Charlie Smith and Sylvester Magee, another former slave from Hattiesburg, Miss., who claimed to be celebrating his 126th birthday last May 29. Magee's eyes are bright and alert, his face marvelously expressive, and until four years ago he was still working in the cotton fields. His recollections of life as a slave and of his later service in the Union Army are remarkably detailed, but a family Bible that recorded his birth date happened to be lost when his cabin burned down four years ago. That doesn't bother Magee. After all, Lyndon Johnson sent him special greetings for his 124th birthday in 1965, and last year he discovered the earthly delights of wine and cigarettes. With an eye to the pearly gates, however, he is afraid of sleep. "I'm an old man, you know," he chuckled before his latest birthday party. "I could go any minute."