when Virginia Hislop stroe onto the Stanford graduation stage to get her master's degree at 105 it generated headlines all over the world the media knows we love to read about the secrets of centenarians especially if they're Sensational like taking a weed dram of whiskey before bedtime or maybe smoking a cigar after dinner the media also knows we love to hear good news about our bad habits I was thinking I wonder what Virginia's secrets are and oh I hope p w chocolate but actual longevity scientists Crush our fantasies by using phrases like longevity is multifactorial it's
a big bingo card so I interviewed Virginia to see how many boxes she checked on my big Bingo longevity card thank you so much for having us in your home delighted what a beautiful backyard you have I enjoy it a great deal how much work do you have to do to keep this so lovely well I have help I assure you I don't do this all by myself but I do the daily things you know weed that pops up has no business being there you've become a national celebrity your photo is in USA Today The
Washington Post Stanford magazine it's everywhere because you were on the stage at 105 accepting your master's degree from Stanford can you tell us how that happened I thought should I finish my teaching credential i' done everything except the dissertation but that was the summer of 1941 and the young man that I was very interested in was called up for active duty in the 1940s jinny as she's known had taken the required classes at Stanford and needed to finish one more thing to graduate her master's thesis but then World War II broke out her boyfriend George
called to serve so Jenny left school to marry him so we were married in August of that year and I thought well they need teachers around the country they'll take me as is which was true well over the course of eight plus decades rules can change fast forward 83 years we don't have a thesis requirement anymore please imagine a person who has dedicated her life to education a fierce advocate for equity and opportunity to learn she served on the public school boards and was the founding board member of yaka community college in Washington she helped
to create and serve as the board chair of the Heritage University in topenish Washington and she recently supported the start of Pacific Northwest University Health Sciences in Yakama this is a life of tremendous accomplishment my goodness I Bo there long time you read a lot well I read most everything from the backs of Flyers to good fiction and sometimes not such good fiction lots of magazines yeah what mag daily paper what magazines and papers well I read Time cover to cover MH National Geographic SPI Onan those are the ones I particularly enjoy you said in
your Washington Post interview that you should cherish your health well I'm very grateful that I seem to have a pretty healthy life and I enjoy being outside and I enjoy being with people you're the one who suggested this outside interview right you you have a grandson Michael Jensen yes I do and he commented to The Washington Post that during family reunions they nickname you the evil elf true can you explain that I think probably it has to do with the fact that I'm not necessarily a traditional Grandma every now and again I pop up with
something they go they say you have a wicked sense of humor well I I try to see the funnyest side of things yeah good for you I hope you don't mind me asking this if if you do I'll I'll cut you right down to the ground okay uh well your daughter an had died just before uh you received your M yes that's right and so Doug came up here to you know be family to be family he sounds like a great guy he is and that's when he got the idea to get the degree did
that help you out emotionally he said you were down for a while well having both children pred deceased me certainly is a downer yeah and Doug has been very good very helpful how did you cope with having two children pred deas you well I didn't have much choice in the matter yeah but how did you keep your head up how did you stay cheerful how did you get through it well there are other people who need attention their things to be done and certainly I don't want to spend any time sitting in a corner saying
poor me ridiculous that's amazing a lot of people are going to want to know how did you yet to be 105 I think choosing my parents and grandparents carefully yes how long did they lived my mother lived to be 91 and her mother lived to be trying to think I think granny was 98 wow and her mother my great grandmother whom I remember quite well lived to be 101 wow amazing and that was back in the day when people didn't live yeah and she had 10 children 10 children wow did that keep her young or
would she have lived to 110 if she who knows coming from a southern family she was married young and she was terribly concerned because she didn't have a child till she was 18 oh yeah what a concern that is nowadays she made up for it by modern standards yeah 10 children you've mentioned stress before how does stress play into longevity what do you do about stress usually I try to find some physical thing whether it's polishing Sil Sil or weeding something that requires action mhm to take your mind off yeah I see are you naturally
fairly relaxed or do you have to work on reducing your stress well I was an only child and rather quiet so it's hard for me to evaluate that um so you're being quiet about that mhm and do you do your own cooking yes what's your diet like it's very good I always have a protein and two or three vegetables and fruit MH and I have a sweet tooth so oh you always ice cream in the freezer ice cream yeah cookies available how do you stay so slender I close my eyes and I think of my
father's two sisters who are approximately my height mhm and my aunt Nora was an outstanding educator head of UCLA's training school and she weighed 300 lb oh boy but that's why I'm very aware of what I eat do you feel like you go hungry sometimes or no you're satisfied no how do you know when to push away from the meal we live in the age of overeating well I think so and all I have to do is close my eyes and think of my anome it's surprising how much resistance I can drum up do you
eat three meals a day yes and when you say protein what do you mean do you mean fish chicken eggs cheese and how much of that do you do you imagine is part of your diet well I have protein at two meals out of three what does breakfast usually look like fruit and cereal or egg and what does lunch usually look like either a sandwich or a salad and dinner meat or fish or a chicken MH and two vegetables maybe a starch maybe not what time is dinner well I'm watching the news 6:30 to 7
I would think 6:30 to 7 you don't eat after that what time is breakfast probably about 8:00 so you go 13 hours no between those major meals what do you do for exercise garden garden no wonder it's so beautiful here so you've got roses yes we down the driveway has that been your life long pattern of exercise no what did you used to do I swam a lot as a kid and I played golf for years and years oh oh interesting were you I played tennis growing up oh you played tennis you don't walk on
the neighborhood anymore not since I that's a double negative Since I no longer have a dog so you were walking your dog when the last one died and I thought I I travel quite a bit Yeah have family in California and I go back and forth and I thought well maybe I shouldn't have a pet at this point sleep oh I got s and 1 half hours you get seven and a half hours do you sleep pretty sound sometimes eight depends on how late I read in bed do you have any tricks for good sleep
well I think it's helpful if you don't eat too much after dinner gy lights and have exercise and fresh air exercise in fresh air but you don't exercise in the evening no and what do you do for friendship well at this stage of my life probably go out for lunch do you play bridge still yes but you wanted to be a lawyer well my father was a lawyer and my cousin was a lawyer and my uncle was a lawyer and my grandfather had been a lawyer and I saw no reason why being a girl should
keep me from being a lawyer but your dad did see a reason he was not of the same mind that's kind of sad do you do you regret that or are you happy about what happened no I I'm sorry in some ways that I didn't have that opportunity mhm but I've had a very full and interesting life and I hope I've yes you have made some changes along the way for the good and that ladies and gentlemen is how you live a wonderful life to 105 sadly it didn't involve chocolate some of my grandchildren wanted
to come along to ask questions of this extraordinary woman as I was getting them ready to ask their questions it just warmed my heart to hear Virginia set them at ease where did you get your anklet Where What Where did you get your anklet oh uh I made it oh good girl M I make bracelets so I have usually several I like your hair I bet it's just been shampooed than what do you remember about when you were my age I'm 8 years old I can remember the ice box and we had two young men
come I think probably three times a week and they had a leather apron on their back and a big block of ice and because we live very close to USC they were frequent football players and the cook and I used to see which big bronny football players were going to bring our ice today
