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Florence Audrey Detlor, a 62-year resident of Menlo Park, died Jan. 4, just a month shy of her 106th birthday.
Born Feb. 20, 1911, in Winnipeg, Canada, Ms. Detlor had a life that spanned history from the sinking of the Titanic to the internet age.
The oldest of four children, Ms. Detlor at age 11 moved with her family from Canada to Los Angeles, and graduated from high school around the time the Great Depression started.
She graduated from Occidental College in 1932, where she achieved Phi Beta Kappa, and the following year married John William Detlor, who she had met in high school.
They had two daughters and lived at one point in a Hollywood home Ms. Detlor had won in a 25-word advertising writing contest.
They moved to Menlo Park in 1955, partly because they already knew the minister at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (now Menlo Church) from Los Angeles. At 50, Ms. Detlor began teaching elementary school in East Palo Alto, and later worked with students with reading disabilities.
Ms. Detlor enjoyed cooking, gardening, reading, traveling – including journeys to the deserts of Africa and the Great Wall of China – and learning. Into her late 90s, she enrolled in computer and Spanish classes, said grandson Justin Whately Scripps.
She also participated in the Bible study and women’s groups at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, and was president of United Presbyterian Women from 1959 to 1960.
In 2012, she was recognized as the world’s oldest Facebook user and got a personal tour of the Facebook campus from CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.
A memorial service in her honor will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, March 10, at Menlo Church, 950 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park.
For more information, go to the Lasting Memories posting by the family.
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