The South Dakota Health Care Association is looking for the oldest person in the state. Currently Bertha Mohr of Eureka is the oldest known South Dakotan. She recently celebrated her 107th birthday.
LuAnn Severson is with the South Dakota Health Care Association. She says the Century Club started in 1997. Severson says officials track South Dakotans who have passed their 100th birthday.
“We also do ask them if they have any living siblings that have advanced into their later years in life," says Severson. "And so we do collect the data that shows that for a number of them, it is a genetics type of process that has gotten them to their older years."
Severson says anyone born before December of 1908, can contact the Century Club for a chance to be named the Centenarian of the Year. So far, Severson says all of the award winners in South Dakota have been women.