When Dorothy Brown of Framingham was born on May 1, 1907, just 8 percent of homes had a phone, and the average life expectancy for a white woman was about 50 years old.

Brown, 112, the state’s oldest living resident, died on Nov. 26. She was also the 10th oldest person in the country, according to her obituary.

Brown spent most of her life in Brooklyn, N.Y., but moved to St. Patrick’s Manor nursing home in February to be closer to family.

She was honored with the Boston Post Cane, given to the oldest living Framingham resident, back in June, according to The MetroWest Daily News. At the time, she told the newspaper that the secrets to her long life were a cup of chocolate ice cream per day, daily Mass services, and random spelling bees.


Hopping back more than a century into the past, it was a different world in Brooklyn, where Brown grew up with her five brothers and three sisters. Brown was born at her family’s home on Tilden Avenue in the city. Both her parents were of Irish heritage and born in New York City – all four of her grandparents and one great-grandmother moved from Ireland to New York.

Her father was a printer and worked first in New York City, and then Philadelphia during more challenging times. He would return on weekends, and bring Brown chocolate.

“That was the start of Dorothy’s life-long obsession with chocolate including Blackout Cake purchased at Ebinger’s on Bedford Avenue in Flatbush,” her obituary read.

Brown married, had three children, and worked in retail after they grew up, according to her obituary. After retirement, she volunteered at Beth Israel Hospital in New York as a patient liaison. She also knitted blankets for premature babies.