105... Almost There

Oleg Cassini, 92, the dapper descendant of Russian aristocrats who married a movie star, designed clothes for a first lady and was the first to license his name to products from perfume to luggage, died March 17 at a hospital on New York's Long Island. His third wife, Marianne, said the designer suffered a broken blood vessel in his head.

Mr. Cassini was best known as Jacqueline Kennedy's couturier, creating 300 elegant outfits from simple A-line dresses to her iconic pillbox hats.

"I have programmed myself to be at least 105 years old," he declared in 1995. "My life signs are of a 45-year-old man. From age 17 'til now I'm the same weight. It's an act of vanity but healthy vanity."

By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post