The death has occurred of Kitty Jeffrey, née Clancy, who was believed to be the oldest woman in the country and who lived to see her 109th birthday.
Kitty Jeffrey died at Cork University Hospital in the presence of her family members.
Last November, she had a 109th birthday party at her home in Knocksatukeen, near Midleton, Co Cork. She celebrated the day with her children, friends and 15 of her cousins.
Ms Jeffrey was born on November 12th, 1914, in Glenville, Co Cork three months after the outbreak of the first World War.
The centenarian went to national school in Glenville. She did a secretarial course when she left school and worked in Jacksons, a gown shop in the Queen’s Old Castle. She was employed at the shop until she married farmer George Jeffrey.
Her daughter Anne said that her parents met at a dance in Garryvoe in east Cork and married in St John’s Church. The pair went to Dublin on their honeymoon.
“Dad was farming at home. He had been in Boston and came home to recuperate after an appendix operation and never returned.”
The couple had four children Anne, George, Norman and Ivor.
Ms Jeffrey took up driving at the age of 50. Before that, she used to cycle to Cloyne for Irish Countrywomen’s Association meetings. She made butter and used to sell it and eggs to a grocery shop in Midleton. Once she got a car, she drove to the country markets with her home made jams and chutneys.
Anne said that her mother was the financial controller of the family farm.
“She’d tell Dad to ask such as price and tell him if he wasn’t asking enough. When we sold the barley mum wasn’t happy with the price so she took up a sample to Murphy’s Brewery in Cork and got a contract. Women didn’t do things like that then.”
Ms Jeffrey became a widow in 1986. Her faith sustained her in the years following the bereavement. Originally from a Church of Ireland family, on marrying her husband George the couple worshipped in Aghada Presbyterian.
Two years ago a special party was organised for Kitty to mark her 107th birthday. At the time her son George said that his mother lived through extraordinary periods in Irish history.
“She remembers during the troubled times there was a British soldier who rode into the yard looking for the local volunteers and they were told there was nobody here so he went off out again on his horse,” he said.
“She also remembered that during the Civil War a lot of the big houses were burnt. They came to burn the manor and the local people stood up and said, ‘No these are good people in Glenville, they’ve always looked after us.’ So they went away. They didn’t burn the manor at that time.”
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