Sarah Knauss

Sarah Knauss
File:Sarah Knauss.jpg Sarah Knauss at age 115 in 1995
Born	Sarah DeRemer Clark (1880-09-24)September 24, 1880 Hollywood, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	(1999-12-30)December 30, 1999 (aged 119 years, 97 days) Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Title	America's oldest person
Spouse	Abraham Lincoln Knauss (December 19, 1878 – March 1, 1965)
Children	Kathryn Knauss Sullivan (November 17, 1903 – January 21, 2005)

Sarah DeRemer Knauss (née Clark; September 24, 1880 – December 30, 1999) was an American supercentenarian considered the world's oldest living person by Guinness World Records from April 16, 1998, the date of the death of 117-year-old Canadian Marie-Louise Meilleur, until her own death. At age 117, she also set the record for the world's oldest "new" title-holder (which corresponds to the highest "valley" on a graph of the oldest living persons over time). Knauss is the second-oldest fully documented person ever, behind Jeanne Calment. She was the last verified living person to have been born before 1885.

Biography

Knauss lived her entire life in Pennsylvania. She was born in the small short-lived United States coal-mining town of Hollywood and died in Allentown. In 1901, she married Abraham Lincoln Knauss (December 19, 1878 – March 1, 1965). She was an excellent seamstress and among making table cloths and her own clothes, she, already as a teenager made her own wedding dress.

Knauss was an insurance office manager; upon her marriage, she became a homemaker. Her only child, Kathryn Sullivan (November 17, 1903 – January 21, 2005), who was 96 at the time of Sarah's death and lived to be 101 herself, once explained Knauss' three-digit age by saying: "She's a very tranquil person and nothing fazes her. That's why she's living this long."

In 1995, when asked if she enjoyed her long life, Knauss answered matter-of-factly: "I enjoy it because I have my health and I can do things." Her passions were said to be watching golf on television, doing needlepoint, and nibbling on milk chocolate turtles, cashews, and potato chips. "Sarah was an elegant lady and worthy of all the honor and adulation she had received," said Joseph Hess, an Administrator of the Phoebe-Devitt Homes Foundation facility where Knauss lived.

Recognition

At age 116, she was recognized as being the new United States national longevity recordholder, then thought to have been held by Carrie C. White (reportedly 1874–1991). It is now believed that the record should have been held by Lucy Hannah (1875–1993), who died aged 117 years and 248 days in 1993. In any case, Sarah extended the United States longevity record to age 119. Some scientific circles consider her to be the second-oldest person ever, though Guinness recognizes her as third, after Jeanne Calment (1875–1997) and the disputed Shigechiyo Izumi (reportedly 1865–1986) respectively. Knauss was the second fully validated person in history to reach age 118 as well as 119 (first being Calment in 1993 and 1994, respectively).

State senator Charles Dent, who had attended Knauss 115th birthday in 1995, said "Mrs. Knauss was an extraordinary woman who pushed the outer limits of longevity. This is a sad occasion, but she certainly had an eventful life."

More than 10 years after her death, her record as the longest lived person in America has yet to be surpassed and cannot probably be surpassed until at least the year 2015.

Records

  Date        Age                   Record   

• 06/09/1994 = 113 years 347 days = Oldest living person in the United States.
• 16/04/1998 = 117 years 204 days = Oldest living person upon the death of Marie-Louise Meilleur
• 30/04/1999 = 119 years 97 days = Died as the 2nd oldest person ever to die in the 1990s decade, behind only Jeanne Calment, and the last person to die in the 1990s decade.

See also

• List of the verified oldest people
• Ageing
• Notable historical events of 1880
• Longevity
• Oldest people
• Supercentenarian

External links

• The Gerontology Research Group