# Any Lost Generation Americans Still Alive **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-lost-generation-americans-still-alive/508647 "2009-09-02T16:52:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-lost-generation-americans-still-alive/508647/1 "2009-09-02T16:52:04Z")
Are there any Americans of the Lost Generation (1883-1900) still alive to-day? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-lost-generation-americans-still-alive/508647/2 "2009-09-02T17:10:45Z")
Yes there are. There is even one still alive who was born in 1894. There are always people around in the 109+ year old bracket but they tend to not last much longer than that for obvious reasons. The record is 122. > **[List of the verified oldest people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Baines)** > > These are lists of the 100 known verified oldest people sorted in descending order by age in years and days.\[a\] > The oldest person ever whose age has been independently verified is Jeanne Calment (1875–1997) of France, who lived to the age of 122 years and 164 days.\[b\] The oldest verified man ever is Jiroemon Kimura (1897–2013) of Japan, who lived to the age of 116 years and 54 days. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-lost-generation-americans-still-alive/508647/3 "2009-09-02T17:23:10Z")
He just misses the cutoff, but the last living American WWI veteran was born in 1901. > **[Frank Buckles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Buckles)** > > Frank Woodruff Buckles (born Wood Buckles, February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011) was a United States Army corporal and the last surviving American military veteran of World War I. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 aged 16 and served with a detachment from Fort Riley, driving ambulances and motorcycles near the front lines in Europe. > During World War II then aged 40, he was captured by Japanese forces while working in the shipping business, and spent three years in the Philippines as a civil... ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-lost-generation-americans-still-alive/508647/4 "2009-09-02T19:46:22Z")
Wikipedia has a [list of living supercentenarians](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_supercentenarians) (people aged 110 and older), which currently pretty closely coincides with having a birth date before the end of 1899. Out of the 79 verified supercentenarians, I count 29 Americans. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-lost-generation-americans-still-alive/508647/5 "2009-09-03T01:12:54Z")
I’d estimate that the last person born in the 19th century will die around the middle to the end of the next decade. Imagine all that has happened during said person’s lifetime-from flimsy biplanes to supersonic fighters, 5 mph battery powered cars to Lambos and Saleens, all the wars, all the everything. Staggers the imagination when you think about it. ---
**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-lost-generation-americans-still-alive/508647/6 "2009-09-04T15:46:37Z")
They lived in interesting times . . . ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-lost-generation-americans-still-alive/508647/7 "2009-09-05T03:16:09Z")
“Lost Generation”? Please inform…