Born: 1915, United Kingdom
Died: 2018
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Before Connie Dennison passed away in 2018 at the age of 102, the Scot was believed by many to be the world’s oldest yoga teacher. “I’ve not been as fit as I would have liked recently but I am determined to carry on with my classes. My ladies in the class are like family now and I wouldn’t like to disappoint them,” she declared at 99. “I had a small fall recently which has affected me and the shingles has left me with a slightly weak left side, but I have been practicing yoga for more than 40 years so it will take more than that to stop me.”
Her relationship with yoga had started 50 years and half a world away, after seeing an advertisement on the side of a tram in 1965 Melbourne, Australia. “From the start I was hooked and have been practicing it—almost daily since then. It is a wonderful exercise routine and it’s so healthy for the body and the mind,” she later recalled. “The problem back then was nobody had really heard of yoga and it was considered by some to be some kind of New Age fad.”
Despite having taught classes for around four decades, Dennison was denied the “world’s oldest yoga teacher” title by the Guinness Book of World Records because she held no official credentials. “When I first started nobody had heard of yoga, never mind have qualifications in it,” she observed, reportedly not bothered in the least. “I am not one to hog the limelight so I couldn’t care less about any records, as I am quite happy doing my own thing in my own time.