Sisters die 102 years apart from two separate pandemics

AUSTIN, Texas (WOAI/KABB) -- Two sisters both died from pandemics 102 years apart from each other.

Selma Esther Ryan, who lived in San Antonio for many years before moving to an assisted living facility in Austin three years ago, died April 14 from COVID-19. Her older sister, Esther, who she had never met, died 102 years earlier at the age of five from the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.

COVID-19 has been noted as the worst global pandemic since the 1918 pandemic, which the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated infected more than 500 million people worldwide and killed roughly 50 million.

Selma Ryan was born at home on April 11, 1924, on her parents’ farm in Hurnville, Texas, which is ten miles north of Henrietta. She attended North Texas State Teachers College in Denton and after graduating, worked in the Dallas area.

She married an Air Force fighter pilot Robert M. Ryan, Jr., (Bud) on September 23, 1945.He flew F-86 Sabre jets during the Korean War, and was shot down on his 75th mission behind enemy lines, but thankfully escaped.

Selma is survived by her two children,Mike Ryan and Vicki Spencer, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.