U.S woman, believed to be oldestFacebook user, dies aged 114

A woman believed to be the world’s oldest
Facebook user has died at the age of 114,
her family said.
Anna Stoehr of Plainview, Minnesota,
gained widespread attention in October
when she said she’d had to lie about her
age to sign up for the social network.
Facebook responded by celebrating her
impressive longevity on her birthday.
“She turned 114 in October of this year
and received a huge bouquet of 114
flowers from Facebook after they learned
that she was not able to sign up without
putting in a fake age of 90 or 95,” Harlan
Stoehr, her 84-year-old eldest son, told
CNN on Tuesday.
He told CNN that his mother — who
leaves 5 children, 27 grandchildren and
12 great-grandchildren — died Sunday.
She was born in 1900, the year before the
assassination of President William
McKinley and the death of Queen Victoria.
Her family had no telephone, car or
electricity at the time.
Facebook isn’t set up to accommodate
such venerable users. The network’s sign-
up page only allows people to put dates of
birth going back to 1905.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg had attempted to reach Anna
Stoehr after his company sent an apology
about the age restriction, according to her
daughter-in-law Marlene Stoehr.
“She was not available when he had his
assistant call to get hold of her because
of a medical appointment, and then Mark
Zuckerberg was out of the country so it
never happened,” she said. “But it was an
exciting time for everyone with all the
attention.”
The company didn’t immediately respond
to a request for comment Wednesday.
Facebook isn’t the only area where Anna
Stoehr stood out — she was also the
oldest person in Minnesota.
She even threw out the first pitch at a
Minnesota Twins game (via a video-taped
throw) at the age of 113, according to her
son.
“They asked her if she would pitch it
overhand or underhand, and she said,
‘Overhand, of course, it’s baseball,'” he
said.
Harlan Stoehr said his mother was
always very active and had lived on a
farm near Elgin, Minnesota, from 1936
until 2013. She was left alone there after
the death of her husband in 1998. At the
age of 112, she moved to an apartment in
a retirement community in Plainview.
“She loved gardening and always had
huge flower gardens and strawberries,”
her son said. “She grew all kinds of
things, and when an apple tree on her
farm blew down, she planted another one.
She was 105 years old at the time.”
Her interest in getting onto Facebook at
the age of 113 grew out of a friendship
with a Verizon salesman.
Joseph Ramireza was selling an iPhone to
Stoehr’s 85-year-old son, who started
talking about his mother. Ramireza said
he had to meet her.
“She’s become something of a kindred
spirit,” Ramireza told CNN affiliate KARE-
TV in October.
He helped her use FaceTime to video chat
with friends on an iPad and has been
teaching her to use email and Google
search.
When Facebook didn’t have her birth year
as an option, Ramireza helped Stoehr
write a letter to Zuckerberg — on a
typewriter.
“I’m still here,” she said in the letter.
( CNN)