The Lord's Friend

James Walter Wilson was born in the slave quarters of a Georgia plantation in 1825. Though he learned to read, and had religious "leanings," the freedom that followed the Civil War did not change his life--like most Negroes he went right on working in the fields. But in 1925, when he was 100, James Wilson joined the Baptist ministry. He preached for 17 years. Four years ago, when he applied for an old age pension, he achieved considerable local fame--the Census Bureau announced that he was the oldest resident of the U.S. Last year he retired to his son's house at Vidalia, Ga., to read the Bible.

When he celebrated his 120th birthday last week, James Wilson was almost as sound as ever--he still ate anything he wanted, and could read the Bible without his spectacles. His face was almost unwrinkled, his hearing unimpaired and he still had nine teeth. When friends and relatives called, James Wilson stood on the front porch and made a 15-minute speech with sweeping gestures. Nervously, his audience asked him to sit down.

"Let me alone," said the oldest man in the U.S. "The Lord's holding me up."

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