The Post
Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Sandy Ridge Seniors Celebrate Social Security

By David Evans, Staff Writer

Candor, NC – Seniors at Sandy Ridge Assisted Living got to have their cake and a little bit of it as well last Thursday. Virene Kissell, 93, threw a birthday party for the seniors in celebration of the anniversary of the first Social Security check.

The first check, numbered 00-000-001, was issued on Jan. 31, 1940 to Ms. Ida May Fuller in the amount of $22.54.

"President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935 on August 14, but it wasn't until the first check issued on January 31, 1940 that our commitment to our seniors was fully realized," said Kissell, who is the mother of Congressional candidate Larry Kissell. "We must remember that our laws are about the people, not politics, and our commitments must be honored. Social security is a sacred promise that must be kept."

Mrs. Kissell, a retired teacher, was quick to point out another birthday she was proud to celebrate. Her son, Larry Kissell, also turned 57 on Jan. 31.

The following history of the first Social Security beneficiary was taken from the Social Security History website.

Ida May Fuller was the first beneficiary of recurring monthly Social Security payments. Miss Fuller (known as Aunt Ida to her friends and family) was born on September 6, 1874 on a farm outside of Ludlow, Vermont. She attended school in Rutland, Vermont where one of her classmates was Calvin Coolidge. In 1905, after working as a school teacher, she became a legal secretary. One of the partners in the firm, John G. Sargent, would later become Attorney General in the Coolidge Administration.

Ida May never married and had no children. She lived alone most of her life, but spent eight years near the end of her life living with her niece, Hazel Perkins, and her family in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Miss Fuller filed her retirement claim on November 4, 1939, having worked under Social Security for a little short of three years. While running an errand she dropped by the Rutland Social Security office to ask about possible benefits. She would later observe: "It wasn't that I expected anything, mind you, but I knew I'd been paying for something called Social Security and I wanted to ask the people in Rutland about it."

Her claim was taken by Claims Clerk, Elizabeth Corcoran Burke, and transmitted to the Claims Division in Washington, D.C. for adjudication. The case was adjudicated and reviewed and sent to the Treasury Department for payment in January 1940. The claims were grouped in batches of 1,000 and a Certification List for each batch was sent to Treasury. Miss Fuller's claim was the first one on the first Certification List and so the first Social Security check.