Activity director Shana Kennedy helps Janette Gillespie blow out her birthday cake candles as she celebrates her 107th birthday Monday Jan. 30, 2017 at Oakbrook Healthcare Center in Whitehouse. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

1. Oldest living TCU Alumna dies at 107; days after birthday

When Whitehouse resident and mother of two Janette Gillespie was asked her secret for living to be 107, her answer was, “The good Lord, good family and good food.”

Ms. Gillespie was presented with a gift box from Texas Christian University in celebration of her 107th birthday Monday and being the oldest living alumni member of the college in Fort Worth. Ms. Gillespie attended Lon Morris College in Jacksonville before moving to Fort Worth to pursue a degree in commerce and economics at TCU.

Ms. Gillespie’s birthday celebration included a small party hosted by the employees Oak Brook Health Care Center in Whitehouse. Brookshire’s in Whitehouse donated a large sheet cake and punch for the occasion. Surrounded by her daughter, Janan Hale, and granddaughter, Brandy Fitzgerald, along with many friends and relatives, Ms. Gillespie was presented with a certificate of recognition from TCU class of 1932 as the oldest living horned frog.

“TCU checked and found out that my mother is the oldest living alumni of their school. It’s a treasure, and I’m not sure she has recognized how important it is,” Hale said. “They sent her a box of items, including a yearbook that her college pictures are in.”