Irene Triplett

When the US Civil War ended in 1865, the US government promised a monthly stipend to the wives and children of Yankee soldiers. Now, 151 years later, and Irene Triplett is still receiving her Civil War pension.

During the 1920s, Mose Triplett – a Confederate soldier who had defected to the Union in 1862, married Irene’s mother, Elida. Irene was born to Mose Triplett and his second wife, Elida, in 1930. Mose, whose first wife Mary died in the 1920s, fathered five children with Elida, who was 50 years younger than he was. Mose died in 1938.

During 2013, after breaking her hip, Irene, the last child moved into a Wilkesboro skilled-nursing facility. She still collects $73.13 each month from her father's military pension.

Incidentally, about 15 children of veterans from the Spanish-American War of 1898 also still receive benefits.