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Community Corner

At 105, Cora Jiggetts Still Looking to Tomorrow

Milestone birthday for Madison's oldest resident.

When Cora Jiggetts came to Madison in 1936, she planned to stay awhile and then  head back home to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she had been raised. But like so many who come to the Rose City, she decided she liked it here.

"It wasn't any one special thing," said Jiggetts, who was 30 years old at the time. "I was just wanting a change."

So she stayed, never regretting it, and in May celebrated her 105th birthday as Madison's oldest resident.

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She recalled that back when, a friend who made daily Bond Bread truck deliveries (one of three regular deliveries at the time–milk and eggs came to the door as well) let a local family know Jiggetts was looking for a job.

Working as a housekeeper for the Kreitler family, Jiggetts walked about a mile from her home to the family of five's house on Park Lane. She cared for the family, preparing meals, keeping their house in order and watching over their three children. She stayed with the Kreitlers for 40 years, meeting neighbor boy Bill Bigelow along the way. Bigelow is now in his seventies and helps care for Jiggetts.

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"Cora was the kind of person who would grab you by the back of the collar and say 'you are a great kid but you're not behaving like you should,' " recalled Bigelow, who visits Jiggetts regularly.

Jiggetts recalled that she earned $15 a week at the time, and got two afternoons a week off. What did she do with her free time?

"Rest!" Jiggetts quipped.

Though much has changed in Jiggetts' lifetime, she prefers not to dwell on the past. Bigelow recalls talking to Jiggetts the day Barack Obama was elected President, asking whether she could recall how different things are for her as an African-American woman.

"She said, 'Bill, I don't remember those things. It's not important. What's important is what happens tomorrow,' " said Bigelow.

Jiggetts has been a member of the on Cook Avenue since she came to Madison, living with her ailing sister on Prospect Street. Her involvement prompted the church—just 10 years older then Jiggetts—to name its missionary program for her, and it was she who cut the ribbon the day the renovated church reopened.

Mother to one son who is now deceased, Jiggetts is now a great-great-grandmother. She lives in the same home she moved into as a boarder in the 1940s. As other residents moved out, Jiggetts found herself alone in the house and arranged to buy it from its owner. She still maintains it with some help from Bigelow and visiting nurses, fixing meals and occasionally doing a little ironing for friends.

An avid Mets fan, Jiggetts received a baseball signed by player David Wright on her 100th birthday, the same year she was featured on Willard Scott's NBC broadcast that features centenarians.

For the record, Jiggetts is just nine years younger than the oldest person in the world, listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as 114-year-old Maria Gomes Valentim of Brazil.

"When I feel bad, I'll let  you know," said Jiggetts, who might just take that record one day. 

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