Mamie Julia Rearden (born September 7, 1898) is an American supercentenarian. She is currently the world's 10th oldest living person and the oldest black person in the world.[1]
Rearden was born Mamie Lewis and grew up in the Pleasant Lane section of Edgefield County, South Carolina. She attended the Log Creek Community School and Bettis Academy Junior College and began her career as a teacher in 1918. In 1919, Rearden married Ocay Rearden, and the couple had eleven children. Rearden was widowed in 1979. Becoming the nation's oldest African- American upon the death of Mississippi Winn on January 14, 2011,[2] Rearden is in a good health, though she walks with the aid of a walker and has bad hearing. When asked how it feels being one of the world's oldest living persons, Rearden replied, looking embarrassed, "I don't know how it makes me feel. I really don't know."[3]