Chicago says goodbye today to Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt , a nun who became a national sports icon for her work as chaplain of the Loyola men’s basketball teams during their NCAA Tournament runs. She died Thursday at age 106.

This made us wonder: Who else has lived to be 100 years or older in the Chicago area? A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau states there were 3,428 people aged 100 or older living in Illinois in 2020.

A search of the Tribune’s archives found some fascinating personalities who are still defying their age. (Though we didn’t trust an advertisement published in 1903 that claimed malt whiskey was “the elixir of life” for those who desired a long one.)

Edith Renfrow Smith was the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell College in Iowa. At age 111, she’

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