# Old Blak Guy Who Claimed to be 135 Years Old?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-blak-guy-who-claimed-to-be-135-years-old/596818
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 19, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-blak-guy-who-claimed-to-be-135-years-old/596818 "2011-09-19T13:18:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-blak-guy-who-claimed-to-be-135-years-old/596818/1 "2011-09-19T13:18:17Z")
Another vaugely remembered bit of trivia-back in the late 1960’s TIME or another news magazine carried an article about an old black guy living in Alabama. This guy claimed to be a former slave, and also claimed to be over 135 years old. When interviewed by reporters, he looked to be in quite good shape.
I also recall that he was able to produce some kind of a record (did slaves have birth certificates)?
Anyway, his names was Charley -last name Parker?
Anybody know if this guy’s claim was ever proven out?
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-blak-guy-who-claimed-to-be-135-years-old/596818/2 "2011-09-19T13:31:10Z")
I have no idea who you’re talking about, but there is a simple answer to the question of whether his age was verified: No. There are no verified cases of anyone living to more than 122:
> **[List of the verified oldest people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_verified_oldest_people)**
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-blak-guy-who-claimed-to-be-135-years-old/596818/3 "2011-09-19T13:33:12Z")
here is who you are talking about: [http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=291903](http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=291903)
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-blak-guy-who-claimed-to-be-135-years-old/596818/4 "2011-09-19T14:54:30Z")
His probably actual age at death was 100:
> **[Charlie Smith (centenarian)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Smith_(centenarian))**
>
> Charlie Smith (died October 5, 1979) was an American longevity claimant noted for claiming to be the oldest person in the United States at the time of his death on October 5, 1979 at age 137. Bone age tests after his death in 1979 revealed that Smith was between 99–105 years old when he died.
> Smith stated that he had been born in Liberia in 1842, kidnapped to the United States at age 12 and sold into slavery in Louisiana to a Texas rancher. Later research indicated that he had been born circa 18...
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### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-blak-guy-who-claimed-to-be-135-years-old/596818/5 "2011-09-19T16:28:44Z")
Thanks…the claim is quite extraordinary. Still it was a nice story-old Charley must have enjoyed his status. The ability to survive beyond 100 years is really amazing-its like a dog making it to 30!
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-blak-guy-who-claimed-to-be-135-years-old/596818/6 "2011-09-20T02:33:20Z")
No, a dog surviving to 30 would be much rarer than a person surviving to 100. There are no verified cases of a dog surviving beyond 24. There’s a claim of a dog surviving to 29 that can’t be verified. Lots of people have survived to 100 though:
> **[Dog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog)**
>
> The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from extinct Pleistocene wolves, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Dogs were the first species to be domesticated by hunter-gatherers over 15,000 years ago before the development of agriculture. Due to their long association with humans, dogs have expanded to a large number of domestic individuals and g The dog has been selectively ...