NAMES IN THE NEWS : 111 Years a ‘Lifelong Resident’
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From Times Wire Services
VICKSBURG, Miss. — The words “lifelong resident of Vicksburg” mean a lot to Bessie W. Putman--she reckons 111 years.
Putman celebrated her birthday Wednesday at the Vicksburg Convalescent Home. An inscription in her family Bible shows that she was born in 1879 in a small house on the edge of Vicksburg.
The daughter of slaves, Putman said her mother and father died while she was a baby, and an aunt raised her and her brother. Born Bessie Wilson, she married Sam Putman in 1900 and had 12 children, most of whom have died.
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