Oldest Remaining Survivor of the 1906 Earthquake Dies at 113

Oldest Remaining Survivor of the 1906 Earthquake Dies at 113

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Almost 110 years after the infamous 1906 earthquake, Ruth Newman, the quake's oldest remaining survivor, has died.  


Newman passed away on July 29 at her home in Pebble Beach. She was 113 years old. Her death was confirmed this week by her daughter, Beverly Dodds, The New York Times reported today.

Though Newman was just a four-year-old living on a ranch in Healdsburg when the quake struck in the early hours of April 18th, 1906, her memory of it remained vivid. 

“She would tell us she remembered my grandmother being upset because they had just milked the cow earlier, and she had separated the cream and put it in containers that got thrown to the floor,” Dodds told the Associated Press. “She remembered being downstairs and her father picking her up and running out of the house.”

Ms. Newman’s death leaves only one known 1906 earthquake survivor: Marin resident William Del Monte, age 109.

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