By: ISDA Staff
At 108 years old Phil Corio is quite possibly the oldest Italian American man, and, he’s certainly one of the oldest people in the world to survive COVID-19.
Phil, and his 58-year-old son Ron, came down with the virus in March and have both made a full recovery, according to the Associated Press.
Phil was born Feb. 22, 1912, and grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey.
He was 6 when the Spanish Flu hit in 1918, and he remembers watching Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig play ball a century ago at Yankee Stadium in New York.
He even played, and beat, Frank Sinatra at a game of pool decades ago.
“I knew [Sinatra] growing up,” said Phil in a 2017 YouTube video. “I shot pool with him and beat him easy. We told him to get a regular job, because we were working on the (Jersey) shore for $25 a week and making a lot more money than him, but he stuck to singing.”
When asked about his secret to longevity, Phil advised that we should all: “Eat Pasta, Enjoy Wine, and sleep well.”