Lucy Hannah

Lucy Hannah
Born July 16, 1875
Linden, Alabama, United States
Died March 21, 1993
(aged 117 years, 248 days)
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Known for Oldest African-American on record

Lucy Hannah (née Terrell; July 16, 1875 – March 21, 1993) was an American supercentenarian. Hannah is the third-oldest verified person ever, as well as the oldest living American at the time of her death. Hannah is also the oldest verified person to never have been the oldest living person, since she lived at the same time as Jeanne Calment, the oldest verified person ever to live.

Biography

Hannah was born Lucy Terrell in Linden, Alabama, and died in Detroit, where she had moved in the Great Migration to escape the racial tensions of the Deep South. She married John Hannah in 1901 and had eight children, only two of whom were living when Hannah died. Two of her sisters reached 100 and her mother reached 99. At Hannah's death, her family stated she was 118 at death which is supported by her SSDI listing,[1] but the case escaped more than local media notice. Further investigation by the Social Security Administration's "Kestenbaum" study 10 years later proved that her age at death was actually 117 years and 248 days.[2]

Longevity

Lucy Hannah is the third-oldest verified person ever, after Jeanne Calment (1875–1997) and Sarah Knauss (1880–1999), the only American to have eclipsed her longevity. Hannah is the second verified person in history to reach ages 116 and 117, after Calment, and the third to reach 115, after Augusta Holtz and Calment.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Social Security Death Index record
  2. ↑ Young, Robert (May 2010). Maier, Heiner, ed. Supercentenarians (Demographic Research Monographs). Springer. p. 249. ISBN 978-3-642-11519-6.