Michigan's Oldest Living Woman Celebrates Her 114th Birthday

BATTLE CREEK, MI — The oldest living woman in Michigan keeps celebrating birthdays and did so on Tuesday in a way that is becoming commonplace across the country as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

Ellen Goodwill turned 114 years young — a milestone that was celebrated at Advantage Living Center in Battle Creek with a party that Goodwill shared while socially distanced from family and friends who waved from outside the long-term care facility. Goodwill then shared a private party with staff over cake before she enjoyed a birthday parade through the halls of the facility where she has lived since 2007, the Battle Creek Enquirer reported.

According to her Gerontology Wiki page, Goodwill was born Ellen Lear on Feb. 2, 1907, near Paris, Kentucky. After moving to Columbus, Ohio, as a young woman, she began work as a model before she married Gus Goodwill in 1947 in Battle Creek. The couple met several years before when Ellen was working as a dancer. After marrying Goodwill, Ellen worked in dress shop windows until her arthritis forced her to stop working.

“She would stop the men at the bus stop because she had a shape on her; a model shape," Sharon Miller, a family friend of Goodwill’s for more than 60 years told the Enquirer on Tuesday. "All the men fell in love with her."

Gus Goodwill died in 1972 and Ellen eventually moved into Advantage Living Center, where she enjoys working on crafts, her Wiki page said. Her age has been verified by the Gerontology Research Group. Statistics show that in 1907, the life expectancy of women born in the United States that year was 49.9 years, the Enquirer reported.

Miller told the newspaper that despite not being able to visit with Goodwill in person on Tuesday, she could tell that her friend was happy to celebrate another birthday — albeit differently because of the pandemic. As a supercentenarian (a person who lives to be older than 110 years old) Goodwill also lived through the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and was glad to add another candle to her cake this year.

"She lit up like a Christmas tree and was happy,” Miller told the Enquirer. “ The nurses and staff there were surrounding her with love.”

Miller added that Goodwill never drank or smoked and has enjoyed longevity of life because of it, the Enquirer reported.

"God is preserving her and has her here for a reason and purpose," Miller said. "She's a woman of God and God is love, and that about sums her up."