MN woman dies before recognition as state's oldest living person
Hermina Wahlin may have been Minnesota's oldest living person, but her death last week at the age of 110 came before the honor could be made official.
Nonetheless, Wahlin leaves behind many memories in her small-town community of Evansville, Minnesota, where she was a town historian and active member of her church, according to her funeral home obituary.
When she died on June 18, the Star Tribune says, her status as "state's oldest" was awaiting verification from the Gerontology Research Group – an organization that keeps data on the world's supercentenarians (people 110 and older).
Wahlin's daughter told the paper that although her mother's memory was "pretty good" in the last week of her life, she "just slipped away" at her residence in the Evansville Care Center.
Her obituary says she was born in 1904 just outside of Evansville in a house her father built, and was one of eight children.
After attending high school in Bemidji, Wahlin worked in a beauty shop in Minneapolis and, in 1926, married David Wahlin. The couple's travels brought them back to Evansville, and then to Las Vegas, where they lived for many years before returning once more to Wahlin's hometown to retire.
She continued her working life as a receptionist for two funeral homes in the community.
David passed away in 1996, but Hermina is survived by two daughters and many children and great-grandchildren.
