Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins has decided to donate her body to longevity researchers in Pennington, an obit says

BATON ROUGE – Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins, The oldest woman to compete in the National Senior Games donated her body to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at LSU as researchers want to learn more about longevity, according to the 108-year-old's obituary published in The Advocate.

Hawkins' family said they are planning a memorial service early next year for the senior Olympian, who took up running after her 100th birthday.

Hawkins passed away peacefully on October 22 at St. James Place.

Hawkins started running when she was 100 years old. Her son saw that someone had run a 100-yard dash for their 100th birthday and encouraged his mother to do the same. In 2017, at 101, Hawkins earned her nickname because she was the oldest woman to compete in the National Senior Games in the 50-meter and 100-meter dashes. She broke these records two years later. In both years she ran faster than the winners of the 94-99 age group.

A graduate of LSU, Hawkins also became the first woman and the first American to set a winning record in the 105+ age group, WBRZ reported in 2021. Hawkins also won two gold medals at the next three National Senior Olympics.

Hawkins' daughter said her mother always knew she could run, joking that Hawkins always said, “I knew I could run because I was running when the phone rang.”

“See a lot of sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, beautiful birds, beautiful music, things that people say to you that make you feel good, all those wonderful magical moments,” Hawkins said, giving her advice to WBRZ in a previous interview for a fulfilled life before her death.

Hawkins has spoken in the past about how grateful she is to be able to remain active as she ages and hopes that she can inspire others to do the same.

“I hope that I inspire them to stay healthy and realize that you can still do this at this age,” Hawkins said. “I’ve been here longer than I thought.”