By Denise O' Donoghue



Today one Irish lady in New York is celebrating a special birthday.

Kathleen Hayes Rollins Snavely turns 113 today, setting her up to become the oldest person in Irish history.

Clare-native Kathleen was born in Feakle in 1902. She emigrated to Syracuse in 1921.

The longest living person ever born in Ireland was Annie Scott, who was born on March 15, 1883.

Annie died in 1996, aged 113 years and 37 days. Kathleen will make history again 37 days from now when she surpasses that age.

Today, Kathleen is "hard of hearing but clear of mind" and has lived an extraordinary life.

She has been a resident of The Centers at St. Camillus in Syracuse, New York for a short number of years.

Kathleen doesn't like sensationalizing or being defined by her age, and she rarely speaks to the press.

The staff of St. Camillus describe her as "remarkably lucid". Although she uses a wheelchair, she takes part in daily activities. She regularly receives visits from many friends.

Last year, her adopted home of Syracuse declared March 17 Kathleen Snavely Day.

Back in Clare, Peggy Hayes, the widow of one of Kathleen's cousins, says she was told that Kathleen "left young and did well, and that she was from a long-living family".

She was born on February 16, 1902 to farmer and publican Patrick Hayes and his wife Ellen.

Kathleen worked as a business apprentice in Ireland, before boarding a ship in 1921 and sailing from Cobh to Ellis Island at 19-years-old and with just $25 in her pocket.

Before leaving, she spoke to her two younger brothers.

"I gave them a lecture about growing up," she said. "Work hard and you be careful about drinking and grow up to be someone to be proud of."

The manifest listed her as a 'domestic', which she corrects to this day.

"A domestic, I never was. I'd heard about all the rich people on James Street, and about all the immigrants who worked in those houses, but I wasn't here to change sheets or wash clothes."

She left the country in the midst of the War of Independence to live with her mother's brother, Jeremiah Moroney, in Syracuse.

She worked at a state school for people with developmental disabilities and then found employment at E.W. Edwards Department Store.

She later set up a shop with her first husband, Roxie E. Rollins.

"Neither of us had a formal business education." she said

"We learned on the job, through experience. If you have a feeling for management and enjoy it, experience will give you the skills."

She told syracuse.come that they "were very much in love. It was the secret of our success."

"I really like people," -Kathleen Snavely, 112, longest-lived person from Republic of Ireland http://t.co/MIJ6CJ9dCu pic.twitter.com/dyG1ktighF — Kate Collins📸 (@kcollins213) March 18, 2014

Roxie died in 1968. In December, 2000, she honoured his memory by making a gift of $1 million to the Syracuse University School of Management.

“I can’t think of anything that would please him more than supporting a cause that would help other ambitious young people like us.”

Two years after Roxie's death, 68-year-old Kathleen married her second husband, Jesse Clark Snavely, Jr.

Kathleen has lived an amazing life, and has experienced a completely different Ireland to the one we know today, but she claims to have forgotten much of it.

"I've forgotten a lot of history," she said. "I've been living my whole life. I didn't think I'd need to remember these things."

Happy birthday, Kathleen.

HT: IrishCentral.com

Via Irish Examiner