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Active Amputee Still Going Strong—at 107!
By Meredy Fullen, Miki Fairley Jonas Dennis of Port Arthur, Texas, may be the
world's oldest amputee. Born November 24, 1897, Jonas has seen the
turn of two centuries and the beginning of a new millennium. He was
alive before the Wright brothers began the age of aviation, and he
has seen man go to the moon and beyond. He has lived through two
world wars, the Great Depression, and the dawn of the nuclear
age.
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Photos courtesy of Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc. |
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Jonas was an amazing 102 years old when he
underwent amputation of his leg below the knee due to circulation
problems. And at the age of 107, he is still young at heart and
going strong. No wheelchair for Jonas! He adamantly refuses to use
one, although he does use a walker.
He is currently enjoying a new, very lightweight prosthesis
designed by Kevin Carroll, MS, CP, FAAOP, vice president of
Prosthetics for Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics, Bethesda,
Maryland. The prosthesis weighs a mere 1.6 pounds and incorporates
a Dycor single-axis foot, an Alps EasyLinerTM, and Otto
Bock SoftTouch cosmetic skin.
Jonas lives with his daughter Lillie Mae Lambert and her husband
Wilbert and does all the activities of daily living. He accompanies
them to church each week and on occasional trips to his hometown of
Bunkie, Louisiana.
Five Generations of Love
Jonas enjoys a large and loving family. He married his wife Alma
in 1916, and they became parents to ten children - five boys and
five girls. Although two of the children died in their 50s, the
rest of the family lives reasonably close around Port Arthur,
Houston, and Dallas. "The family all come for the holidays and
birthdays," says Lillie. "When they come, the streets around here
have to be blocked off, because there are so many of us."
Lillie continues, "We figured up a few weeks ago that Dad has
111 in the family from children to great-great grandchildren - four
generations from him - and some more on the way." And that doesn't
count nieces and nephews.
Hardworking Life
Jonas has much to remember over his long life. "Dad tells
stories all the time about when he was a boy," says Lillie. He was
18 and Alma was 14 when they wed. He worked in a liquor store
washing out empty whiskey bottles and sweeping floors to save
enough money to get married. He was paid 50 cents a day.
When Jonas was growing up, his family had no phone, car, or
electricity. He wasn't able to go to school, but learned to count
money and acquired other skills, managing all these years without a
formal education.
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Kevin Carroll, CP, FAAOP, fits a liner over Jonas Dennis’ residual limb as his daughter Lillie Mae Lambert watches. |
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Jonas worked hard at a variety of jobs to support
his family. He cut logs, worked in a rice field, worked on railroad
gangs, and farmed other people's land for half the profits of
whatever the fields produced. He raised his own hogs and chickens.
Alma milked cows for other people, which is how she also obtained
milk for the family. Jonas also had a smokehouse for curing and
smoking pork for both sale and family consumption.
"Our house had wooden windows - no glass panes," remembers
Lillie. "We had no electricity, so we used kerosene lamps for light
and heated with wood in the fireplace. Our family went to church in
a horse-drawn wagon."
Technology Changes
Among the many technological changes Jonas has seen in his long
life involve communications. Just a year before Jonas was born,
Nikola Tesla patented the first radio system. In 1901, the US Navy
adopted a wireless system. It's hard to imagine now, but up to
then, the Navy had been using visual signaling - and homing pigeons
- for communication. Guglielmo Marconi established international
wireless communication between Britain and the United States,
earning him the Nobel Prize in 1909.
Jonas has thus seen technology advance from the first radio
transmissions to communicating almost instantaneously via the
Internet and satellite with people anywhere in the world and even
outer space.
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Carroll and Chris Harrigan, RTP, display Jonas’ new lightweight prosthesis. |
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When Jonas was younger, the family enjoyed
listening to a battery-powered radio on special occasions. But one
of Jonas' favorite modern inventions came about in 1925 when
Scotsman John Logie Baird invented television, building on previous
discoveries. Says Lillie, "Dad loves television. His favorite shows
are Oprah Winfrey and western movies." Jonas also loves
the stories on the daytime soap operas and watches them every
day.
Aiding Longevity
To what does Jonas credit his long life? "He has always remained
active," says Lillie. "He gardens a lot. We really don't have the
space for him to have a garden," Lillie continues, "but we turned
our backyard into a garden for him." Jonas also likes walking and
enjoying the outdoors. Healthy eating too has contributed to his
longevity. "Dad has always grown and eaten his own vegetables,"
says Lillie. "He hunted and fished and raised his own meat."
Although much of Jonas' life may seem rugged and hard to many in
our softer modern age, it seems reasonable that contentment,
interest and enjoyment of life, and a large, close family also have
contributed to this remarkable man hitting the century mark and
beyond. 
Table Of Contents - February 2005
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