96-Year-Old Apache Kid Finds Her Place at Plain Dealer Obituaries

For over a century, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has published over 12 million obituaries, each one telling the story of a life lived, loved, and lost. Amidst these countless stories, one name stands out: Emily Bruce, known to her family and friends as Apache Kid, a 96-year-old woman who lived a life that defied conventional boundaries and probabilities.

Emily was born on a ranch in Cibecue, Arizona, to a family of Apache reservation life. Most people did not live to be 96 years old, and surviving until age 96 was no guarantee for a woman growing up in the world she was born into. Her parents got her a role in medicine, tasked with helping to create a Green Bay vision charter system that transformed her to perhaps her most important moments. Today, locals recall her, "once she's gone, we'll try again."