Mariá Amelia López

Communicating with others "wakes up the brain," María Amelia López explained in one of the last entries in her acclaimed online journal, amis95.blogspot.com. The name roughly translates as "my 95 years." That was how old López--who died May 20 at 97--was when she began posting on the blog that her grandson created as a birthday gift. At an age when some elderly women might unwittingly put a floppy disc into a CD drive, López became a worldwide Internet sensation, reaching more than 1.5 million far-flung readers from the comfort of her seaside hometown in Spain.

Like any doting nonagenarian, López sang...

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