New York's oldest person turns 113

SNYDER, N.Y., June 29 (UPI) -- Pat Thomas, New York state's oldest resident, turned 113 Sunday -- and by the way, she has a new hobby, painting.

Thomas, born in 1895, is the sixth-oldest person in the United States and the eighth-oldest in the world, The Buffalo (N.Y.) News reported Sunday, citing the Verified Living List of the Gerontology Research Group.

An avid gardener, she has cultivated a reputation as "The Plant Lady," but took up painting after she could no longer garden, the newspaper said.

Thomas -- whose first name is Olivia -- was born in Iowa and grew up in Illinois. She has lived in Snyder, a Buffalo suburb, since 1946, when she moved there with her husband Frederick, an engineering professor at the University of Buffalo.

She has been recognized for volunteering more than 9,000 hours at what was formerly known as the Veterans Administration Hospital, where she grew flowers in a greenhouse for patients and established a garden therapy program.

She remains "alert and talkative," the News reported, but she doesn't have much to say about her remarkable longevity.

"I don't like to think about it," she told the newspaper.

Her husband died in 1982 and the couple had no children.