Woman, 99, Becomes United States Citizen

Two days before her 100th birthday, Frances Hockey raised her right hand, said, “I do,” and became a citizen of the United States.

Family members laughed when an INS official asked Hockey during the Sunday ceremony if she would bear arms on behalf of the United States if necessary.

Hockey waited nearly 89 years from the time she landed in Baltimore at age 11, an immigrant from Slovakia. For most of that time she thought she was a citizen.

“When my husband became a citizen, I thought as his wife I was covered too and only found out in recent years that I wasn’t,” she said. “So I figured I had better do it before I run out of time.” Her husband died in the 1960s.