Relatives feel Buchanan was 107 years old
PICO NEIGH- BORHOOD — A couple of years after losing a leg to diabetes and just weeks after her health deteriorated to the point that she stopped talking altogether, local centenarian Elnora Buchanan died last week from old age, her relatives said.
Family members believe Buchanan was born in December of 1896, but she wasn’t born in a hospital and no known birth records exist. Raised on a farm in Orville, Ala., Buchanan was a hard-working mother of eight who followed her children to Santa Monica in 1964.
Buchanan outlived four siblings and five of her children. Asked what the cause of death was, granddaughter Elnora Benjamin, 55, replied, “I would say old age. You know, things stopped working, but she really had a sense of humor. You would try to take care of her and she was feisty — she would give you a black nose, you know. She was just wonderful.”
Buchanan studied through elementary school at the Shiloh Baptist Church school in Alabama. She worked as a hired hand, picking cotton for years before moving to Mobile, Ala., with her husband Thomas and their children. There, Buchanan did domestic work, later taking a job at Brookley Fields Air Force Base.
Referred to as “Grandma” and “Mama” by several generations of relatives, Buchanan moved in February of 1964 into an apartment on 14th Street, where she cultivated a fruit and vegetable garden. She later moved to an apartment on 17th Street, where she lived until her death last Monday. She is survived by a sister, Viola Hayes; children Rebecca “Puddin’” Benjamin, Dorothy Mae McNeil and Ovetta “Bump” Simmonds; 16 grandchildren; 21 great grandchildren; and 11 great-great grandchildren.
Kathleen Benjamin, 47, a granddaughter, said Buchanan was a skilled gardener, cook and caretaker of children, who stayed strong through difficult and changing times.
“She used to say ‘Just keep on living,’ because she had a more worldly concept of things,” Benjamin said on Tuesday. “Probably, that helped her endure the changes in her lifetime... You go from gas-burning light to digital — it’s a long ways.”
Kathleen Benjamin recalled how Buchanan was ahead of her time as a recycler and organic gardener. She said three generations of relatives have shared a story of walking home from Santa Monica High School with Buchanan as she stopped frequently to collect cans.
“She would need assistance to get down into the trash cans, so she’d have her stick, but as she was walking she’d have us come over and help her,” Benjamin said. “You think you’re all young and cute, and Grandma says, ‘Get over here and get these cans out of there.’”
Over the years, Buchanan was interviewed by many of the local media outlets, including The Outlook, the Santa Monica Independent-Journal and the Santa Monica Mirror. Confusion over Buchanan’s age was apparent in the news reports. An August 2002 article in the Mirror covered what was billed as Buchanan’s 107th birthday party, which would have made her nearly 109 today.
Still others believed Benjamin was as old as 111, which would have made her just three years younger than the oldest living woman — Hendrikje Van Andel-Schipper of the Netherlands — according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The family agreed Buchanan was born on or near Dec. 25, 1896 after connecting various stages in her life to points in history. That’s the date that will be printed in the program at Buchanan’s funeral Friday morning at the Greater Morning Star Baptist Church at 17th Street and Pico Boulevard, just steps away from her apartment.
“Each wrinkle that rippled and adorned her skin were the roots of a soul that continues to endure long after the body in which it was housed,” reads the text to the program. “Without her, would any of us know the graceful strength of arms that could engulf our fears and knowingly nudge us forward to fly towards our choices, our consequences and the horizons of our destinies? Thank you, mama. Knowing you has brought out the best of the blessed in all of us.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 7, 2004. Read the original PDF.