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Altoona woman has set foot on every continent in her 93 years

Delphine Shannon, 93, of Altoona counts herself among the less than 1% of the population who has traveled to the seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia.

A Pittsburgh native who moved to Altoona as a child, Shannon’s travels have taken her across the world and started when she took a trip to Israel in 1979 with a church group.

For the next 34 years, Delphine took a trip to far away places about every other year. Sometimes, she went with tour groups where she didn’t know any of the other participants. More often, she asked a relative or a friend to go with her – and paid their way.

However, her thirst for adventure started in the 1930s as a 5-year-old when the desperate times of the Great Depression prompted her mother to put her on a train to Staten Island, N.Y., where an aunt and uncle provided for her for several weeks.

“That was when I got the traveling bug,” the petite and soft-spoken auburn-haired grandmother recalled. The desire to see wonders of the world and meet people of different cultures persisted.

“When I would walk to high school, I remember singing a song about the castles in Spain. I thought ‘One day, I want to travel.'”

At 17, she married Marine veteran Jim Shannon and moved to Detroit in 1948. In 1959, a massive layoff occurred at Cadillac Motors, where Jim worked as a security guard, so the young family returned to Altoona.

Difficult at the time, Shannon said “it was one of the best things that happened to us as time went on.” Her husband found work in the trucking industry.

Married for 50 years, the couple raised their three children, Cindy, Claudia and Jim, in Altoona. While her husband didn’t share her interest in seeing faraway lands, Shannon said he enjoyed hearing about her adventures and seeing the many photographs she’d take. As a consequence, she appears in very few photos that fill several albums. She photographed beautiful scenery, wild animals, cultural sites and other travelers.

She also picked up a few souvenirs – an intricately carved brass Egyptian pharaoh’s chair in miniature, Waterford Crystal from Ireland and a decorative, large egg from South Africa, among other items.

Shannon worked at a variety of jobs starting in 1960. Her 40-year career included positions as a traveling sales rep with Cork Company, A&P, factory line with Butterick, cosmetics, seamstress, optometric assistant, certified reflexologist, home care with the elderly and management positions with Nautilus at the Altoona YMCA and J.C. Penney’s.

Her earnings helped fund her fun, with assistance from short-term loans. Claudia said her mother would plan her trips two years in advance, take out a loan for the cost of a trip and pay it off shortly after she returned. This enabled her to treat a variety of family and friends to join her.

For instance, Shannon’s other daughter, Cindy, and her granddaughter, Jennifer, traveled with her on a three-week African safari.

The trip took them from northern Africa down through the southern tip and around the eastern coast. Her favorite portion was a night safari where they traveled by vehicle.

“You could see the animals and what they were doing,” Shannon said. “One night, I heard this banging and I asked our guide and she said it was rhinoceros banging its head against the cabins.”

Ironically, seeing all seven continents wasn’t an accomplishment she planned. She realized her feat after putting together a wall map so she could share her stories and adventures with her grandchildren.

She’s visited Australia and New Zealand, Antarctica, Ireland, Japan, Guam and about 20 islands: the Virgin Islands, the Greek Islands and the Hawaiian Islands. Her Hawaiian trip was filled with music.

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