Meet Ida May Fuller, who 75 years ago received the 1st Social Security check _ for $22.54

Seventy-five years ago Saturday, the government cut 65-year-old Ida May Fuller of Vermont a check for about $22 — the first Social Security payout.

It secured Fuller, who never married and had no children, a place in American history.

She was born on a farm outside Ludlow in the Green Mountains. Future President Calvin Coolidge was three years ahead of her in high school.

By the time she died in 1975 at age 100, she had received nearly $23,000 in benefits. Near the end of her life, she told a reporter that the payments "come pretty near paying for my expenses."

Fuller was a staunch Republican. In 1970, she told The Associated Press that she didn't think there should be any more increases in Social Security payments.