10/12/2026
Susan Young Browne doesn't act like a woman slowing down. At 108 years old, the Dover, Delaware resident still climbs behind the wheel of her blue Subaru whenever she needs to run errands — and she's just renewed her driver's license, valid all the way through 2033, when she'll turn 115.
"In order for me to go to the store, I have to drive," Browne says simply. "Anywhere I want to go, I have to drive... I'm an experienced driver. I try to be very careful."
She's earned that confidence over more than 80 years behind the wheel. Born in 1918 on a farm in Lincoln, Delaware, without running water or electricity, Browne grew up one of nine siblings during segregation, attending a segregated elementary school before going on to graduate from Delaware State College for Colored Students in 1945. She spent the next 30 years as a teacher, including time in a one-room schoolhouse.
Today, she still lives independently in the same house she's called home for more than seventy years. Three days a week, she drives herself to the Modern Maturity Center for group exercise, including chair dancing. Her diet is simple and disciplined — chicken, fresh fruit, black coffee, no alcohol, no fried food — with one sweet exception reserved for family gatherings: her homemade 7UP cake.
More than 100 people, including local officials and neighbors, gathered to celebrate her recent birthday, and the Modern Maturity Center even dedicated a special reserved parking spot in her honor, set aside for drivers 100 and older.
"I grow old gracefully," Browne says. At 108, with a license good for another seven years, she's not planning to stop anytime soon.
