Omaha woman, the oldest living American, to celebrate quiet 115th birthday
By Kevin Cole
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OMAHA, Nebraska (Omaha World-Herald) — The oldest living person in America, Omahan Thelma Sutcliffe, will quietly mark her 115th birthday Friday.
And that’s the way she wants it.
Sutcliffe, who was born Oct. 1, 1906, doesn’t like anyone to make a fuss over her. She will get up, as she always does, at 5 a.m. With the help of staff members at Brighton Gardens near 93rd Street and Western Avenue, she will get into one of her many colorful outfits.
“She pays attention to her appearance,” said a longtime friend, Luella “Lou” Mason of Omaha. “There’s no sitting around in bedclothes. Thelma wants to be dressed every day — very particular about her looks.”
Her birthday party will be attended only by Brighton Gardens staff members because the facility is on lockdown due to positive COVID-19 tests. Barring any further setbacks, Mason will be able to see her friend again on Oct. 9.
Sutcliffe was born in Benson, Nebraska (before it became part of Omaha) to August and Maude (née Adams) Liesche, who owned a farm. At the age of 17, she married Bill Sutcliffe, who worked for the U.S. Postal Service.
He loved to golf, and the couple enjoyed traveling, Mason said. Sutcliffe has called her wedding day the happiest day of her life, Mason said, and said her husband was “her best friend.”
Bill Sutcliffe died in the early 1970s.
The Gerontology Research Group said Sutcliffe became the nation’s oldest living person on April 17 when Hester Ford, a 115-year-old woman, died in North Carolina. The second-oldest American is Maria Branas Morera, who was born in California on March 4, 1907, but now lives in Spain.
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