New York State Dean Louise Levy, a member of a genetic study of Ashkenazi Jewish longevity, died July 17 in Greenwich, Connecticut, at the age of 112.
“During her long life, punctuated by two global pandemics, she was always a great lady, in every sense of the word,” her family wrote in her obituary.
“We will never forget his grace, his positive spirit and his kindness. »
During her working life, she was an office manager in a household goods company run by her husband Seymour before being recruited in 1998, along with several hundred other Jews aged 95 and over, for the needs of a study from the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx. They had all been chosen – Holocaust survivors included – because together they formed a homogeneous group.
The Longevity Genes project identifies and studies the “good” genes, those that allow people to become centenarians.
“I hope that in our lifetime, we can use the fruits of our research to prevent age-related diseases and improve the quality of life,” said its director of Israeli origin, Nir Barzilai, in a press release published on the project website. “As scientists, it is our responsibility to do so. »
The results so far point to mutations in cholesterol genes and a growth hormone gene, which are associated with longevity, and evidence that longevity has a hereditary factor.
Despite their advanced age, many of the study members smoked more, exercised less and weighed more than people who died much younger. (Levy herself smoked until 1965, when she turned 55.)
Levy had once confided in an interview that her family history did not seem to predispose her to a long life. “My mother was never healthy,” she told the New York Daily News (when she had lived in the 20th century). Her father had died of cancer and her only brother, Ralph, of tuberculosis in 1933, at the age of 34.
Levy used to attribute her longevity to the glass of red wine she sipped every day and a low-cholesterol diet. By her own admission, she never ate candy.
“I’ve always had orange juice, toast and coffee for breakfast. And every day at lunch I eat yogurt,” Levy told WCBS 880 in 2019. “I think I started eating yogurt when I heard it was the reason for longevity. Russians. So that’s what I have for breakfast, every day, with some fruit and some crackers. »
For those close to him, it was his “supernatural ability to take life as it comes – with the utmost equanimity – which played a role. Asked which values she held most dear, they cite honesty, loyalty and compassion.
Louise Morris Wilk was born on November 1, 1910. Her parents, Louis Wilk and Mollie Morris, were German Jews who settled in Pennsylvania shortly after the American Civil War. Louise had grown up in Cleveland, where her father was a photographer and movie theater manager. The family then moved to Manhattan, where Louis Will specialized in film posters.
Louise had graduated from Wadleigh High School in Harlem before attending Hunter College, but did not graduate there.
She and Seymour Levy were married on April 28, 1939, and had two children: a son, Ralph, and a daughter, Lynn, both in their seventies.
In the early 1950s, Louise and Seymour moved from the Upper West Side to Larchmont, a suburb of Westchester County. Louise worked alongside her husband at I. Levy Sons until his death in 1991 and until his 90s for the man who took over the business.
For what her family describes as “the third act,” Levy moved to Osborn, a senior living community in Rye, New York. There, they write, she “became one of the most popular residents, a star of sorts, known for her indomitable spirit, sense of humor and longevity.”
There are 23 verified “supercentenarians” (aged 110 or older), including one in Japan who was born on the same day as Levy.
Levy is survived by her two children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
2023-07-30 10:03:52
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