Estell Williams never expected to live so long. At 107 years old, she takes no medication and has no apparent health problems, other than memory loss. Ask her family what the secret is to Estell’s longevity, and they’ll throw up their arms. But ask Estell, and she’ll tell you – a corncob pipe and God.
Estell was born in July 1899 in South Carolina. It was a time long before commercial air travel, long before televisions and long before black people were given civil liberties.
Estell grew up in Hardeeville, an impoverished town near the southern tip of South Carolina, and that’s where she’s been all 107 years.
It’s where she married her husband, raised her children and helped look after her dozens of grandchildren, great grandchildren, great, great
And it’s where she started smoking her corncob pipe, a ritual she says has helped her surpass the century mark.
Aside from waking up every morning and taking a few puffs from her pipe, Estell can be found every weekday at the Hardeeville Senior Citizens Center.
Her daughter Franny drops her off there every morning, and that’s where she stays until early afternoon.
“Even if she don’t feel like it, she still coming,” said Jeanette Deloach, a senior citizens center employee.
Then shortly after lunchtime, Estell shuffles out the door and boards a bus that takes her from the center to her daughter’s restaurant, Franny’s Fried Chicken.
