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Bertha Vickers, a Mississippi woman who continued to hunt at 100 years old and beyond, has died.
Vickers, of Morgantown near Sturgis, first made headlines throughout the nation in 2018. She harvested a deer just weeks before her 100th birthday and a photo of her with the deer went viral on social media.
At the time, Vickers was still cooking, keeping house, cutting her lawn and fishing. An active woman, Vickers did not understand why her harvesting a deer, which was a doe, drew so much attention.
"I don't know why everybody is making such a big deal about it," Vickers told the Clarion Ledger in 2018. "If I'd killed a big buck I could see it, but it was just a doe."
Mississippi woman famous for deer hunting at 100 years old and beyond, Bertha Vickers, has died at age 105. Two deer in one shot
The story of Vickers did not stop there, though. The following season, when Vickers was 101 years old, she harvested two deer with one shot.
It was an accident, but again, she made national headlines.
"It shot plum through both of them," Vickers said in 2019. "They both dropped right there. They didn't take another step."
Vickers was born on Jan. 9, 1918. Woodrow Wilson was in his second term as president, World War I was in its final months and anyone who could afford a car was most likely driving a Ford Model T.
She lived through the Great Depression and hunted and fished most of her life. During her life, she saw great change. Radios became common followed by televisions and men went to the moon.
"She went from walking or riding a horse to all this technology," said her granddaughter, Sheila Barksdale of Sturgis.
A lifelong passion for the outdoors
Barksdale said Vickers continued to hunt at 102. She even took up hunting with a crossbow.
"She was willing to try," Barksdale said.
After that, age began to catch up with her and she no longer hunted, but her passion for it didn't wane.
"She talked about it all the time," Barksdale said.
Vickers died Sept. 2, 2023. She was 105.
"We will celebrate her for the rest of our lives," Barksdale said.
