Longest Living Triplets

Faith, Hope and Charity as young girls

Faith, Hope and Charity Cardwell, Elm Mott, TX (95 years-plus each)

The Guinness Book of Records credits Faith, Hope and Charity Cardwell (born May 18, 1899) of Elm Mott, Texas as the longest-living triplets. Faith Cardwell Davis died first on October 2, 1994 at age 95 years, 137 days. According to geneaologist Robert Young, Charity Cardwell Lawson died on January 6, 1995 at age 95 years, 233 days and Hope Cardwell Brock passed away on January 15, 1997 at age 97 years, 242 days. The Waggoner Triplets, Annis, Sarah and Francis, born on June 15, 1905, and each turned 93 on June 15, 1998. Again according to Robert Young, the first of the triplets, Sarah, passed away on January 24, 1999 at 93 years, 223 days.

Lela, Lena and Leta in 2004

While we don't know for sure who are the world's oldest living triplets currently, we believe that Lela Brown, Lena Hurst and Leta Myers, who were born as the Lawyer Triplets on May 2, 1914 in Washington County, Indiana, were most likely the only living triplets in the United States who were each in their 90's. Lena passed away on February 25, 2005 and was survived by her two triplet sisters. The triplets are shown to the right at their 90th birthday party on May 2, 2004 (Lela, Lena and Leta from left to right) and also shown as young girls in the black and white photo shown above.

With their passing, we need to recongize Herbert Anderson, Verona Wallin and Helen Erickson, triplets who were born on February 24th, 1920 in San Francisco, California to Christine and Gustav Bergesen. Their mother died shortly after childbirth and they were adopted out to three different families in the church. At age 86, they are now living as Herbert Anderson in Sparks, Nevada, Verona Driscoll in Cameron Park, California, and Helen Stultz in Northridge, California (no updates since their 86th birthdays in 2006). Other notable sets of triplets are Catherine, Frances, and Marguerite Kirchner, who were born August 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, NY, and who celebrated their 85th birthdays together in 2005 and who are all doing well as of June, 2006 (no updates since then), and Julie Clark, and Robert and Thomas Taylor, who were born in Mather, Manitoba, Canada on December 4, 1920. All three currently reside in different Canadian provinces and they may be Canada's oldest-living triplets (no updates on this set available since early 2005). Roy Hill, Ray Hill and Ruth Hill Jones celebrated their 70th birthdays on August 23, 2005 and all live in Paris, Tennessee.

This article claims that Doris Kingston, Alice Holmes and Gladys Caress, who celebrated their 80th birthdays together in early June, 2007 are the oldest living identical triplets in the UK.