# Who is the oldest person you've known? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 8, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029 "2017-04-08T01:03:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [April 8, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/1 "2017-04-08T01:03:58Z")
[[inspiring thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=823408)-you can interpret “known” as either a one time meeting, or someone closer…] My 99 year old (birth) grandmother, who died 4 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/2 "2017-04-08T01:19:59Z")
A 97 YO great-uncle of mine who was sharp as a tack and rather spry until he went to hospital at 95 YO. Not implying anything, it was just a shame. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/3 "2017-04-08T01:27:16Z")
Two people at 96: my grandmother and [David Kyle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kyle). My grandmother didn’t recognize me at the end, but I spoke with David last April (he died in September) when he was at Albacon. He helped me immensely by showing up when I was interviewing Ramsay Campbell; I had been thrust into doing the interview with 30 seconds notice, and when David showed up, he and Ramsay began a nice conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Brodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Brodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brodi)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/4 "2017-04-08T01:30:57Z")
A couple that volunteered at a local humane society. They both looked to be somewhere in their late 80s-90s. I never really “knew” this person, but we had a customer bring a relative into the store I was working at who was 90+ years old and looked decades younger. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/5 "2017-04-08T01:50:15Z")
My Gran lived to be 104. ( She was still living at home, alone, at 97. Her 89 yr old neighbour would come fetch her and drive her to town so they could do their marketing together! ) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/6 "2017-04-08T02:30:32Z")
My grandfather lived to 102 and was still pretty sharp at the end. My aunt (his daughter) died just short of her 102nd birthday, but unfortunately she’d been suffering from dementia for several years. That’s on my father’s side. My mother had an aunt and uncle who both lived past 100. A friend’s mother lived to 105. She was blind and bedridden for a couple of years and her family was actually hoping she’d die. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/7 "2017-04-08T03:40:35Z")
My mother was 98. My dad 93. I don’t think I ever met anyone older than that. My grandparents were born in the early 1870s and so was my first-grade teacher. I think they are probably the earliest-born people I’ve ever known. I myself am moving onto the short list of the oldest people I’ve ever known. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/8 "2017-04-08T04:20:32Z")
We delivered meals to a 96 year old named Daisy. I have a shirttail cousin who is also 96 and who can still spout family genealogy like she’s reading it out of a book. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/9 "2017-04-08T04:22:15Z")
My mom made it to 100.5. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/10 "2017-04-08T04:35:31Z")
This [guy](http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article131585509.html). I met him five years ago. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/11 "2017-04-08T04:40:28Z")
My ex-wife’s grandmother lived to be 99 and her grandfather lived to be 102. He lived for two years without her. In his last days he asked one of his caregivers if he thought Fay would recognize him when he sees her in Heaven. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/12 "2017-04-08T05:18:00Z")
My husband’s great-aunt just died four months shy of her hundredth birthday. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/13 "2017-04-08T05:19:29Z")
Two of my aunts - the oldest in each side of the family - both lived to be 99, without any dementia. I still have a living uncle and two aunts, all in their late 90s. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/14 "2017-04-08T05:50:51Z")
A friend of my Mom’s who made to 103 or thereabouts. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/15 "2017-04-08T09:31:28Z")
My best friend’s granddaughter is 9. I think I might be the oldest person (78) that she has ever met. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/16 "2017-04-08T13:07:57Z")
When I was a social worker in 1996, I was contacted by a senior citizen who said her daughters had commandeered her bank passbook and other financial items while she was in the hospital and were refusing to return them. Turned out the daughters thought Mom was way too generous in handing clumps of cash over to a couple of neighborhood teenaged boys who ran little errands for her. They also thought she belonged in supportive living or should at least get on Meals on Wheels. Also turned out the daughters were adopted daughters. Mom walked around in her little apartment without cane or walker, holding on delicately to the trim on the wall. She was proud of the plaque from NY majory Fiorella LaGuardia thanking her for her decades of service to the community. She was also proud of her diploma from the Charleston Colored Women’s Institute. Which was dated 1914. I did some research and it looked like a typical student would have been in her early 20s at graduation. Her daughter reluctantly returned her bank books and stuff when I explained that unless she was incompetent their good intentions didn’t overrule the fact that she was an adult and they’d taken her stuff without her consent. I’d call up at least once a week and try to strike up a “how’s it going” conversation and she’d head me off at the pass: “Thank you so much for calling. I am doing well and I do not need meals or any services, I am doing well on my own”. / “Uhh… yes ma’am, good to hear”. Her daughters did not know her date of birth and said she herself had always told them she didn’t know. Best estimate: 102 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/17 "2017-04-08T13:39:45Z")
My BIL’s God-Mother was 102 when she passed away. We used to visit her in the nursing home, first with our friendly little cat then later with my baby daughter. She was born around 1896 I believe. Cool old lady, she had retired from teaching for 40+ years before I was born. Never had kids of her own, so my BIL and by extension my family had really adopted her I guess. Pre-Nursing home when she was still \*spryish \*in her early 90s we used to pick her for Holiday’s at my sister’s like Easter. She was an excellent piano player and she still sang on key but kind of warbled and reminded me of Granny from Tweety Bird. My Grandmother made it to 95 and was still sharp right to the end. A good run. On her own up to age 93. My wife’s grandmother made it to 96. She was still very active and living on her own when she passed away. Both our other grandmothers made it to 90. Bodes well for my daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/18 "2017-04-08T14:06:43Z")
I’m going to be thrifty and recycle this story about my “Aunt”, who died at age 106: > [@World War I and II - tell me about your relatives](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-i-and-ii-tell-me-about-your-relatives/472575/73): > > … Then - as if this post wasn’t long enough - is the lady we named our daughter **Moon Unit** after. Not really a relative, but close enough. “Tante Lune” was born and raised in Paris, and became a doctor. She was also Jewish. She met and married close friend of my maternal Grandparents’ after the War and migrated to the US. Tante Lune hardly ever spoke about her war experiences. My Grandmother asked her what it was like in France during the War. “Oh it wasn’t so bad. On the weekends we’d bike out to the country for picnics.” My Dad knew some ex-OSS folks from work, who knew, or knew of, my “Tante Lune” and gave him the straight dope. She had been in the Resistance, and was reputed to be the best pistol shot in Paris. The French Resistance would grab downed Allied pilots and hide them during the week. Then on weekends a “bunch of young people” would bike out to the country “for a picnic”. Sometimes two or three to a bike - times were hard in those days. After dark, at a pre-arranged location, an Allied plane would pick up the pilots, and maybe drop supplies. Then the remaining Resistance people would bike back - fewer than the ones that left Paris. > > Of course, if any Nazi soldier had suspected anything, they would all have been shot at once. > > “Weekend picnic in the country” my ass! > > When the Nazis took Paris she went underground - and I do mean underground. For a time she was hiding out in the sewers, never daring to sleep in the same place twice. All the while taking care of wounded Resistance fighters. Setting up operating rooms in the sewers of Paris. Amazing stuff. She never talked about it - we got it all third hand. > > In 1987, she told me and **Mama Zappa** a couple of stories about her experiences. She said her dog had gone missing right after the Nazis occupied Paris. She and a friend drove all over Paris looking for it, and found it shot in a gutter. By the Nazis. > > She told a better story of Liberation Day. As Paris was being liberated, she went to a hospital to help as an MD. In that hospital was her father! He had not been wounded during the war. He was putting up a banner to celebrate the liberation, and fell off the ladder! They hadn’t seen each other through the whole war, and they meet up because of a simple fall. > > Tante Lune died at 106. She had dementia the last several years, that was sad. Prior to that she was sharp as a tack - always up on current events, always well read. She did not want people to make a fuss, so she had no funeral. She had outlived her peers, and most of the next generation as well. What I wanted to say at her funeral, and never got the chance to, was the stories above, all about the dear elderly lady who was my “Tante Lune”. Hitler turned Europe into a machine to kill her, and everyone like her - non-German, Jewish, free, or independent-minded - and she was all of those. She not only fought the war, and helped win it, and survived, but she really lived. She lived longer in quiet retirement after the War than she lived before the War. If living well is the best revenge, she had the finest revenge of all. And enjoyed every minute she could. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/19 "2017-04-08T14:11:38Z")
An acquaintance of mine I met through flying lived to be 102. [Mama Bird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Bryan_Johnson) ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029/20 "2017-04-08T16:41:31Z")
My great grandfather - 104, who was sharp until the day he died. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-oldest-person-youve-known/784029.md?page=2)