CANTON, Mich. — A Michigan woman who celebrated her 114th birthday on July 4 attributes her longevity to healthy eating -- including a generous diet of potatoes.
Bonita Gibson, a resident of Waltonwood Carriage Park, an assisted living facility in the western Detroit suburb of Canton, was not taking her birthday lying down. She was riding in Plymouth’s annual Fourth of July parade.
Gibson is a supercentenarian, a select group of people older than 110 years old. She was born on July 4, 1911, in Hoxie, Kansas -- nine months before the Titanic sank.
Bonita Gibson is celebrating her 114th birthday on Independence Day, making her one of the oldest living people in the United States and believed to be the oldest in Michigan.
— WXYZ Detroit (@wxyzdetroit) July 4, 2025
Here is footage of her riding at the parade: pic.twitter.com/EPYH5RXNzX
That makes Gibson the oldest living person in Michigan, the third-oldest living person in the U.S. and the ninth-oldest in the world, according to the Gerontology Research Group. The group noted that Naomi Whitehead, a Georgia native who now lives in Pennsylvania, is the oldest living U.S. resident and the third-oldest in the world. Whitehead, who is also 114, was born on Sept. 26, 1910.
Gibson grew up in rural Missouri and lived through the Spanish Flu and COVID-19 pandemics. As a child, she survived the mumps, measles, and whooping cough.
She also has lived through two world wars and 20 presidents (21 if you count Donald Trump’s non-consecutive second term).
Gibson drove until she was 99 and took her first ride in an aircraft when she was 100.
In 1930, Bonita married Kenneth Gibson, her high school sweetheart, in Oregon, Missouri. They began living on a farm.
“We had chickens and a huge garden and all kinds of fruit trees,” Gibson told WWJ in July 2023. “We had plenty to eat. We just didn’t have any money to spend.”
The couple moved to Idaho, where her husband’s relative had a farm. The move is what introduced them to the potato industry.
“He said Kenny can help me in the field and you can be the cook,” Gibson told CBS Detroit. “I hadn’t cooked a thing in my life.”
In 1945, the couple formed the Newdale Potato Company in Idaho Falls. Kenneth, who died in 2003, worked as a potato broker until he retired in 1977.
Bonita moved to Michigan when she was 102. She had one request for her grandson Scott Gibson, Waltonwood Executive Director Angie Hanson told McKnight’s Senior Living.
“She wanted to ride on the back of his Harley, but he wouldn’t let her,” Hanson said.
Scott Gibson is the son of Bonita’s only child, 88-year-old Kenneth Richard Gibson.
Scott is one of Bonita’s three grandchildren. She also has six great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren.
Scott lovingly calls Bonita “a clown.”
“I would say class clown if I should say that,“ Scott Gibson told WXYZ-TV. ”She’s, you know, always joking and you know, even with her problems hearing right now she’s still, you know, gets me cracking up."
Bonita says she has stayed healthy by not smoking or drinking alcohol, staying positive -- and oh yes, by eating potatoes.
Erin McGraw, Life Enrichment Manager at Waltonwood Carriage Park, said that Bonita is “kind, generous, never forgets a person’s name, always remembers birthdays.”
“She’s just a good, good person,” McGraw said.
Bonita planned to visit a Burger King with her family after Friday’s parade.
Pass the french fries.
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