Willits says goodbye to Edie Ceccarelli, town’s 116-year-old celebrity of longevity

Willits picked a perfect weekend — glowing, mild, enlivening — to bid farewell to the central Mendocino County town’s adored celebrity of longevity, Edith “Edie” Ceccarelli.

The past few days couldn’t have been better for the public gatherings that blessed, buried and celebrated Ceccarelli and her historically long and vital life.

How fitting for the fun-loving, highly sociable woman who through 116 astonishing years had more very good days, it seems safe to say, than most of the rest of us have days of any sort.

“Edie was truly a one-of-a-kind person who enjoyed life to its fullest,” Lee Persico, a second cousin of Ceccarelli, said in his eulogy Saturday. As Persico spoke at the lectern, sunbeams brightened the stained-glass windows of St. Anthony’s of Padua Catholic Church in Willits.

During the open-mic portion of the funeral mass, longtime friend Tana Craighead, 63, recalled taking Ceccarelli to Las Vegas when she was in her early 90s and watching in amazement as she danced in heels until about 1 a.m.

“Edie was up for anything,” Craighead said.

Ceccarelli made headlines far and wide in recent years. Simply by waking morning after morning, dressing nicely and savoring another breakfast, the Willits native set or seriously challenged state, national and world records.

Over the past year or so, she became the oldest living American, the oldest verified California resident in the history of the state, and the second-oldest person on the planet.

People from Willits and beyond gathered by the hundreds this past Feb. 4 for a rainy-day parade heralding Ceccarelli’s 116th birthday, which came the following day.

To live to 116 isn’t just impressive, it’s epic, almost unheard of. Gerontology scientists have validated that no more than about 30 human beings have reached or exceeded that age – ever.

On Ceccarelli’s birthday Feb. 5, just two of the estimated 8 billion people on Earth were 116. The world’s current longest-living person, Maria Branyas Morera, who was born in 1907 to Spanish parents in San Francisco but has lived most of her life in Spain, turned 117 on March 4.

Edie Ceccarelli enjoyed extraordinary health and vitality for most of her life. She was still dancing at 102 and she didn’t move from her Willits home into an eldercare residence until 107.

But in recent months, she several times showed little or no interest in eating, which was highly unusual for her. And she was sleeping more.

She was 116 years and 17 days old when she died in her sleep on Feb. 22 at the six-bed Holy Ghost Residential Care Home.

She was buried on Friday afternoon at her family plot at Willits Cemetery.

Near her grave are those of her first husband, Elmer “Brick” Keenan, for 36 years a Press Democrat typesetter, and her parents, Italian immigrants Maria and Agostino Recagno.

The Recagnos gave birth to seven children in Willits, Edith Rose being their first. She would outlive all of her siblings, none of whom lived to age 100.

Well before she qualified as a supercentenarian by turning 110, Edie Ceccarelli was celebrated in Willits for her kindness, verve and generosity, and for the style and class she was famous for.

“She was a perfect dresser,” businessman, community leader and longtime friend Bruce Burton told the crowd Saturday afternoon at a post-funeral reception at the Willits Senior Center. “And she was a flirt!”

Burton reminded the gathering that Ceccarelli was born in 1908 and personally witnessed what many today regard as ancient history. Burton recalled Ceccarelli telling him she remembered walking on Baechtel Road one day and listening to the pealing of every church bell in town.

It was Nov. 11, 1918. The first World War had ended and people around the world celebrated the armistice. Edith Rose Recagno was 10½ years old.

Burton noted also at the reception that young Edith grew up to be a disciplined investor. She recommended the purchase of annuities, which involve giving money to a company in return for the promise of lifetime payments.

“Of course she liked annuities!” Burton said. The companies that sent her monthly payments surely did not count on those benefits continuing to age 116.

One way of looking at how extraordinary it is for Ceccarelli to have reached that age: Life expectancy for American women stands now at about 79 years. Ceccarelli lived nearly 50 percent longer than that.

Along the way, she offered what might be history’s greatest piece of advice for living — not only very long but very happily, “Have two fingers of red wine with dinner, and mind your own business.”

Amid his remarks at Saturday’s celebration of Ceccarelli’s life, Burton, the founder of Willits Redwood Company, said that in February the town was hoping to see her “make it up the next rung” and attain age 117.

Though that won’t happen, Burton said he and his town are grateful to have witnessed parts of Ceccarelli’s most remarkable life. “It was fun to be part of it,” he said.

Burton said also, “We all owe her a big thanks for the great publicity she brought to Willits.” Her last birthday was covered by ABC World News, the Guardian and the New York Times.

It’s conceivable that one day the correct answer to this question could win a trivia contest: What do record-holding supercentenarian Edie Ceccarelli and champion thoroughbred racehorse Seabiscuit have in common?

Both had astonishing runs, and both rest now and forever in Willits.

Chris Smith is a retired Press Democrat reporter and columnist. Reach at (707) 477-6489.