#1: Jeanne Louise Calment (February 1875 to August 1997)
Jeanne Calment was a supercentenarian who lived from 1875 to 1997. With a lifespan of 122 years, she was documented as the oldest human. Her age attracted medical studies and attention. To date, she’s the only human verified to have surpassed the age of 120 years. Some of her family members had also lived beyond the average lifespan, meaning genetics could have played a role in her long life. Her father lived for 93 years, and her mother lived to be 86. In addition, her elder brother lived 97 years. Instead of a healthy breakfast, Jeanne would take hot chocolate or coffee with milk. Her father would pick her up from school for a homemade lunch. Calment married at 21 and lived a leisurely lifestyle. Instead of working for an income, she pursued hobbies such as music, swimming, playing piano, fencing, and cycling. She also accompanied her husband to hunt wild boars and rabbits. At the age of 112, Calment was acknowledged as the world’s oldest living person.
#2: Kane Tanaka (January 1903 to April 2022)
Kane Tanaka was born in 1903 in Japan, the seventh child and third daughter to her parents. As a child, she had a sweet tooth and spent her time on calligraphy and mathematics. In 1922, she married her cousin, with whom they had two daughters and two sons. For a living, she worked in a store. At age 35, Tanaka developed a paratyphoid fever. At 45 years old, she underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. But these illnesses didn’t end her life. Tanaka was to participate in the Torch Relay at the Olympic games but wasn’t able to due to the Covid-19 pandemic. At 107, Tanaka became the oldest living supercentenarian after the death of Chiyo Miyako in 2018. Kane once said she wanted to live 120 years, crediting her life to God, sleep, mathematics, and eating healthily. She has spent her later years in a care home where she enjoys chocolate and board games. Her longevity has sparked a debate about whether the human lifespan could be between 115 and 125 years.
#3: Sarah Knauss (September 1880 to December 1999)
Sarah DeRemer Knauss was born in America in September 1880 and died in December 1999. She was the third born out of seven children and remains the third oldest verified woman. Her birth date was independently substantiated through various censuses. Sarah is best known for marrying Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s most famous presidents. Knauss was a dedicated housewife for most of her life. At age 111, Sarah joined a nursing home due to her failing eyesight and frailness. She said she enjoyed life because of her ability to do things independently. At 117 years old, Sarah underwent a blood transfusion due to low hemoglobin. When asked how she survived to such a great age, she credited it to working hard, being busy, and not worrying about her age. Sarah died on December 30, 1999, of natural causes. Although her autopsy results were never made public, she did not suffer from any illnesses.
#4: Lucille Randon (April 1904 to Present Day)
Lucie Randon, also known as Sister Andre, became the oldest person alive after Kane Tanaka from Japan passed away in April 2022. At the time the Guinness Book of World Records was confirming her new status, she was 118 years and 73 days old. Today, only three people have been confirmed to have lived longer than Lucile. She is also the oldest nun ever and the oldest person to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Randon was born on February 11, 1904, in Alec, France, to Alphonsine Soutoul and Paul Randon. She had three older brothers and a twin sister who sadly passed away in infancy. Randon began working at the early age of 12 when she was appointed a governess to three minors. A few years later, Lucile became a teacher and governess to a prominent Versailles family in 1922. She continued to perform both duties until 1936. Despite her protestant upbringing, Randon embraced Catholicism in 1923 and became a nun in 1944 when she joined The Daughter of the Charity Catholic Order. Her new name became Sister Andre in honor of one of her brothers. Randon has been in a wheelchair since 2010 and is also blind. Despite testing positive for Covid-19 in January 2021, she continues to live under the care of her family members.
#5: Nabi Tajima (August 1900 to April 2018)
Nabi Tajima was verifiably the oldest living person at the time of her death on April 21, 2018. She lived for 117 years and 230 days. Tajima took over the title of the oldest living person worldwide from Violet Brown in September 2017. However, she passed away as the Guinness Book of World Records was preparing to certify her. Tajima was born on August 4, 1900, in Kikajima, Japan, during the Meiji regime. She died on this small Japanese island between the main island and Okinawa. Tajima’s husband passed on in 1991 while aged 93. She was a mother to two daughters and seven sons. At the time of her death, she’d had more than 160 descendants, some of whom were her great-great-great grandchildren. Tajima attributed her longevity to sound sleep and eating healthy and delicious food.
#6: Marie-Louise Meilleur (August 1880 to April 1998)
Marie is another supercentenarian who was documented as the oldest Canadian ever. She was born in Quebec and married at 20 to Etienne Leclerc. Her husband was a fisherman who succumbed to pneumonia at 39. She married her second husband in 1915 and they had six children together. Unfortunately, her second husband succumbed to diabetes at the age of 83. Marie lived with her daughter and later moved to a nursing home for more care. She was a smoker but quit at age 102 after getting a cold. Meilleur claimed her longevity was due to healthy eating habits and working hard. In 1997, Marie was declared the oldest person alive after the death of Jeanne Calment. During her last year of life, she became too frail to talk and could only slightly hear.
#7: Violet Brown (March 1900 to April 2017)
Violet Brown was verified to be the oldest person alive for five months following Emma Morano’s death in April 2017. Brown was born on March 10, 1900, to John Mosse and Elizabeth Riley in Duanvale, British Jamaica. She was born 67 years before Jamaica became a state. Her birth name was Violet Mosse, and she assumed the “Brown” surname when she married Augustus Brown, the father of her daughter. Brown had six children, four of whom were alive when she passed on. Her firstborn, Harland Fairweather, died on April 19, 2017, a few months before his mother. He died at 97 while unofficially holding the title of the oldest person whose parent was still alive. During an interview with the Jamaican Gleaner, Brown didn’t attribute her longevity to any particular diet. But she said that her diet was comprised of many different foods, with the exception of chicken, pork, and alcohol. Brown lived for 117 years and 189 days. She is recorded as the oldest Jamaican to have ever lived.
#8: Emma Morano (November 1899 to April 2017)
Emma Morano is among the oldest women ever to live. The Italian woman was the eldest in their family of eight siblings. Her family members have a record of living to an old age. Her aunt, some of her siblings, and her mother clocked 90 years. Morano worked in the kitchen of a Marianist school until the age of 75. In 2013, she revealed that the secret to her longevity was eating eggs, positive thinking, and enjoying a glass of grappa. She also claimed that staying single added more years to her life. Pope Francis congratulated Morano on her 116th birthday. She lived at her home until her death on April 15, 2017, at 117 years.
#9: Chiyo Miyako (May 1901 to July 2018)
Chiyo Miyako is another Japanese supercentenarian on the list of the oldest living persons. She is the ninth oldest person to have ever lived. Miyako was born on May 2, 1901, in Wakayama, Japan, and died on July 22, 2018, in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. Miyako was the fourth-born of her parents’ five children. However, Miyako’s parents raised her as the eldest child because her older sibling died young. In school, Miyako liked all subjects except physical education. After she completed her higher education at Osaka Telegraph School, Miyako worked as a telegraph operator. She met Shoji, her future husband, at school. Shoji worked at Japanese National Railways, which is why they relocated frequently. At one time, the family even lived in Beijing, China. Miyako loved calligraphic art throughout childhood and practiced it even during her golden years. Her favorite meals were eel and sushi, and her family described her as a very charitable person. She lived for 117 years and 81 days.
#10: Misao Okawa (March 1898 to April 2015)
Misao Okawa, sometimes called Misawo Okawa, was born on March 5, 1898, in Tenma District, which is today known as Kita-Ku in Osaka, Japan. She is the fourth oldest Japanese to have ever lived and the tenth oldest individual in the world. Okawa worked in her family’s clothing business as a young lady until her marriage to Yukio, a Kobe businessman. They moved to Kobe after their wedding, where the couple had a son and two daughters. Yukio died at age 36, leaving behind a young family. Okawa had to move back to Osaka with her three children. Later, she became a grandmother and a great-grandmother. Okawa loved to keep fit, which caused her to accidentally break her leg while performing leg squats at age 102. After that, she walked until age 110, after which she started using a wheelchair. The Guinness Book recognized Osaka as the planet’s oldest woman on February 27, 2013, a few days shy of her 115th birthday. She died on April 1, 2015, having lived for 117 years and 27 days.
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