Sarah Knauss
Sarah Knauss | |
|---|---|
 Clark in 1897 | |
| Born | Sarah DeRemer Clark September 24, 1880 Hollywood, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 30, 1999 (aged 119 years, 97 days) Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation | Office manager |
| Known for | Oldest American ever |
| Spouse |
Abraham Lincoln Knauss
(m. 1901; died 1965) |
| Children | 1 |
Sarah DeRemer Knauss (born Clark; September 24, 1880 – December 30, 1999) was an American supercentenarian. She was the world's oldest living person between the death of Canadian woman Marie-Louise Meilleur on April 16, 1998, and her own death from natural causes at the age of 119 years, 97 days. Knauss is the oldest American person ever and the third-oldest person in recorded history, after Jeanne Calment and Kane Tanaka.
She and a Danish-born American man, Christian Mortensen (who died 9 days after Meilleur), were the last two living people born before 1884. For the last 40 days of her life, she was the last living person born before 1885.
Biography
Sarah DeRemer Clark was born on September 24, 1880 as the third of seven children in Hollywood, Pennsylvania, U.S. Her family later moved to South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
In 1901, she married Abraham Lincoln Knauss. Her only child, Kathryn Knauss Sullivan, was born in 1903 and died in 2005 at the age of 101. After 64 years of marriage, her husband died in 1965 at the age of 86.
She was 4 feet 7 inches (1.40 meters) tall.
At the age of 104, she moved to live with her daughter, Kathryn. At the age of 106, she could no longer walk and used a wheelchair. At the age of 119, she had good health, but she was deaf.
Death
On December 30, 1999 at around 3:00 p.m., Knauss died from natural causes in her sleep while sitting in a chair in her room. After her death, another American woman, Ella Miller, became the oldest living person in the world.
Related pages
Notes
- ↑ One source incorrectly reports her date of death as December 31, 1999.
References
- ↑ Merrill, Gary F. (February 3, 2015). Our Aging Bodies. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813575261. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
- ↑ Devlin, Ron (January 1, 2000). "Sarah's Century". The Morning Call. Archived from the original on August 24, 2018. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
- ↑ "Sarah Knauss, world's oldest person, dies at 119 | Online Athens". Archived from the original on October 5, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- 1 2 Table C - World's Oldest Person (WOP) Titleholders Since 1955 Gerontology Research Group
- 1 2 3 4 Photo Gallery for Supercentenarians born in the year 1880, as of August 17, 2019. Gerontology Research Group
| Preceded by Marie-Louise Meilleur |
Oldest Recognized Living Person[broken anchor] April 16, 1998 – December 30, 1999 |
Succeeded by Eva Morris |