WBTV spoke with Ford and her family on several occasions over the years, and in 2018, while researching her exact year of birth with her family, a WBTV reporter came across census data that might indicate Ford, who was born Hester McCardell, might have actually been born in 1904. A census recording from April 28, 1910, lists Hester as 5 years old, meaning she could have been born in 1904.