102-year-old on Trump victory: 'Believe in America'

PHOENIX — Arizona's 102-year-old Jerry Emmett didn't get to see her heroine elected the first female U.S. president and, while she is deeply disappointed, she still has hope for the country.

Emmett, who was born before all women could vote, listened as results came in Tuesday night. She retired to bed around 8:30 p.m. and fell asleep before news broke that Hillary Clinton had called to congratulate now President-elect Donald Trump on his victory. That night, she said, she took a pill that "makes me simmer down" a bit.

Emmett is beloved in Arizona Democratic circles and was the honorary chair of the state's delegation to the national convention in Philadelphia. She captured America's heart when she helped report the state's delegates for Clinton. She has been a fan of the Clintons for decades (she even started a fan club for them), and she hoped to make it to a Clinton inauguration.

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Emmett spoke to The Arizona Republic Wednesday about Clinton's loss. It put her, she said, "in a little state of shock," and she spent much of the day "talking to God."

One lesson from her long life, she said: Everything happens for a reason.

"It has been a huge disappointment, but I did get to vote for what I thought was going to be the first female president of the United States," she said. "We just didn't win. That's a long way from getting to see my mom cast her first vote," she said, referring to the time, decades ago, when her mother cast her first ballot in Gilbert, Ariz.

"I just want everybody to know that we’ve got to believe in America, and we’ve got to believe in both parties," she said. "Things are going to work out, and I think we're going to find — just like how we've solved every other problem in America — this, too will be solved, and it will turn out all right.

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"We're getting a lot of help from God and he'll keep on looking after us. We're going to have to do the best we can do to work with our president, and work with our parties in the United States. We've always worked things out, and I think we will again."

Follow Yvonne Wingett Sanchez on Twitter: @YvonneWingett