Adell Julie Thompson of Santee, S.C., told WLTX News 19 in Columbia: “I do what the Bible tells me.”
Thompson was born Oct. 10, 1915 – two years before the United States entered World War I and just three years after the Titanic sank. She was 26 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She was 48 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and 53 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
She has lived through 20 U.S. presidents – William Howard Taft was president when she was born. Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln, was still alive at age 72 when she was born.
Born and raised in Santee, she saw transportation transition from horses and mules to cars.
Thompson worked as a second-grade substitute teacher in the 1930s.
She has three children, six grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.
Her friends and family recently held a large outdoor birthday party for her.
Thompson told WLTX – “I had no dream of being 107 years. But the Lord spared me, and I try to do the right thing, I guess, so people don’t talk about you.”
She added – “I thank the Lord to have me to do the right thing until I do go.”
Thompson is not the oldest living American. That honor goes to Iowan Bessie Hendricks, who turned 115 on Nov. 7. Hendricks’ daughter Joan Schaffer is 90.