Vinal Mauss; One of World’s Oldest Triplets

Vinal Mauss, 91, one of the world’s oldest triplets. The triplets, born in Murray, Utah, were believed to be the first in the Western United States. They drew crowds when they were displayed as curiosities at a Utah state fair in 1907. Mauss believed humor was a key to their longevity. “I think I was blessed with a strong body and I’ve tried to maintain that through living my lifestyle. I’ve never been involved with smoking or drinking or drugs. I’ve tried to avoid those things all my life,” he said last fall. When they were born, the triplets were so tiny that they spent their first few hours in a makeshift incubator--their father’s padded shoe box placed in the warming oven of a coal stove. Mauss, the oldest by 10 minutes, weighed only three pounds; sisters Vilda Hughes and Velma Torpin, who survive him, weighed 2 1/2 pounds. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest triplets, Faith, Hope and Charity Caughlin of Massachusetts, were 93 in 1962 when the first died. On Thursday in Walnut Creek.