100-Year-Old Twins Reveal Secret to Longevity as They Celebrate Remarkable Milestone
A set of twin sister and brother just turned 100 and they have shared their sinple secret to longevity, having come from a family where most members lived for very long.
Jane Southwick was born to Loreen Abbott a century ago. However, after she popped out, everyone was shocked to see there was still another baby coming.
“They had no idea Bill was in there,” says Southwick in an interview at her Livermore, California home.
“Back then, they didn’t have ultrasounds and all of that. After I was born, they were like, ‘Wait. There’s another [baby].’ ”
The twins, Jane and Bill Abbott, were born in Hawaii on April 8, 1926. They travelled a month later for New York with cabin drawers serving as their cribs.
The twins with their elder brother Richard
In the 10 decades since, they have lived through historic eras and suffered personal losses, survived cancer and a heart attack.
But as they tell PEOPLE, with one sibling finishing the other’s thought: “We’re still kids.”
Their dad, Royal Abbott, was stationed with the Navy in Hawaii at the time and their mom was a choir director. The twins spent their childhoods between Hawaii, the U.S. mainland and Canada and attended high schools in California, in Long Beach and Oakland.
Longevity is in their genes. Both parents lived into their mid 90s and their older brother, Richard, di£d just last year, a month before his 103th birthday.
That has made for big, bustling family gatherings in the Bay Area, full of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren
“One of the nice things about having parents living so long is that we were able to spend a lot of time together,” Southwick says. “We were able to share a lot of family stories.”
She credits her mother Loreen for introducing her to her husband, Ernie, when the two of them were students at UC Berkeley in the 1940s. She said there was a bus strike and her mother suggested she get a ride with Ernie, who owned a Studebaker.
“The first time I saw him, I thought ‘Wow!’ It was love,” Southwick says.
She and Ernie, who di£d in 1995, raised five children, including Nancy, who now serves as her primary caregiver. Southwick earned a degree in child development and taught in a nursery school.
Based on her and her dad’s memories, backed by historical data, she published a book, Thomas Leonard McAvey: A Soldier and a Sailor in 2012, about her Civil War–era great-grandfather.
Speaking about her many, many years, Southwick said there were ups and downs.
“I retired in the ‘80s and had breast cancer soon after that,” she says. “I had one breast removed and I’ve had pulmonary problems, but it’s just a matter of life. Things happen.”
Her twin brother Bill, who lives one town over in Pleasanton, says he had been relatively healthy until a heart attack about a decade ago.
“It didn’t really feel like a heart attack,” he says. “But I did get stents.”
He also has kidney issues.
Nancy moved in to help with her mother in 2005 after leaving her own job in Oregon and just ended up staying. She also helps Bill, who lives alone, with his doctor appointments and shopping.
“I steal her a lot,” he says.
The twins with Nancy
In their recent PEOPLE interview, the trio all broke into smiles when Nancy recalled how her mom’s heart doctor said she “has a 60-year-old heart.”
As for Bill, his heart doctor says, “Well, you’re 100 years old. Your heart is doing just as good as it can.”
As for the secret to longevity, the family attributes their health to their lifestyles, including staying as active as they can and having strong family and medical support.
The twins were born during Prohibition and say their parents never smoked or drank, although Southwick admits she “did smoke for a while.”
But not Bill, who says he “had a half a beer when I got out of boot camp and I almost dozed off.”
As a high school athlete, he loved swimming in the ocean and served aboard the battleship USS California during World War II. Later he flew patrol planes in the Navy Reserve for 30 years. He retired 45 years ago after working as an AT&T engineer.
“My wife wasn’t well, so she didn’t want me to work,” Bill says.
Patricia Abbott di£d in 2005 after 55 years of marriage to Bill. The couple had one child, Linda, a niece they adopted when she was 2.
Not long after his wife di£d, the twins and their older brother Richarc started taking trips with Nancy and other relatives.
That turned into about 15 years of fun travel, including trips back to Hawaii and an “easy” tour of Italy featuring lost passports, wallets and good wine.
Their last trip was prior to COVID-19, when they did a Western parks tour with a Grand Canyon stop complete with helicopter ride.
These days, Southwick’s home hosts large Christmas gatherings each year where her grandson Clint cooks and relatives decorate.
The extended family also returns for milestone celebrations, including the twins’ recent centennial birthday party.
