Popular Categories

No categories found.

Berkeley’s Alice Thompson, One Of Country’s Oldest People, Dies At 111 


Alice Thompson, seen in March 17, 2021, looks from the living room window of her Berkeley home as passersby pay tribute. | File 

Tuesday, January 10, 2023 || By Michael Romain || @maywoodnews 

Alice Thompson, whose festive birthday caravans were becoming a pandemic-era tradition in Berkeley, died on Jan. 1, two months shy of her 112th birthday. According to Gerontology Wiki, Thompson was the oldest known living person in Illinois before her death.

Thompson’s daughter-in-law, Sheila Thompson, confirmed her mother’s death on Jan. 10. 

For the last two years, Berkeley’s firefighters, police officers and village officials processed past the home on the 1500 block of Victoria, where Thompson lived with her youngest daughter, Dorothea Hayes Graham. 

Thompson was born in Flora, Miss., on March 17, 1911, her family told Village Free Press in past interviews. 

“She’s the mother of 10 children,” Sheila Thompson said. “Four of them are still living. She came to Chicago in 1955 and lived in Chicago up until about the last 20 years. She lived in Oak Park for about 10 years and has been living out here in Berkeley for about 10 years.”

Sheila Thompson’s husband, Alice’s son, Jerome Thompson, 68, said he lives just five minutes away from his mother. 

“I come over here Sundays to bring breakfast,” he said in 2021. “I take care of her when my sister goes to church.”

That year, Sheila Thompson mused about her mother-in-law’s long life.

“She loves the Lord, she eats good, she sleeps pretty good, she loves family and she loves friends,” Sheila Thompson said at the time. 

Although her age is currently unvalidated by the Gerontology Research Group, the organization that tracks the world’s oldest living people, Gerontology Wiki notes on its website that Alice Thompson is the oldest known living person in Illinois based on her family’s records and birthday celebrations covered by publications like Village Free Press and the Chicago Sun-Times. 

Until Alice Thompson’s death this year, the nine-suburb Village Free Press readership area was home to two of the oldest living people in Illinois and the country. Maywood resident Susie Lewis, born Aug. 11, 1911, is 111 years and 152 days old, making her possibly the second-oldest person in Illinois behind Vivian Forst, who was born June 25, 1911. The oldest person in the country is 114-year-old Edie Ceccarelli, a woman who lives in California. 

The visitation for Alice Thompson will be held Thursday, Jan. 12, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the funeral will be Friday, Jan. 13, 10 a.m. (wake) and 11 a.m. Both services will take place at Stone Temple Baptist Church, 3622 W. Douglas Blvd. in Chicago. Face masks are recommended. 

Leave a Reply