/https%3A%2F%2Ftf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffiler_public%2Faf%2Fc9%2Fafc93574-bab8-4cf4-813f-ea3d77b03389%2Felizabeth_francis_longeviquest.jpg)
Since her birth in 1909, Francis lived through two world wars, segregation, the fall of the Soviet Union, multiple pandemics and the invention of the cellphone
For reference, when Francis was born in 1909, many Black people in the United States could not vote, only gaining full enfranchisement in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, when Francis would have been 56.
That’s says a lot
But think of how many racist assholes who treated her badly over the years who died before her. She won that particular game at least.
Must be crazy to be the oldest person alive because when they were born, they were the youngest… and every one of those people on the planet at that time have since died.
Just kinda wild to think about.
Not just the fall of the Soviet Union.
The rise and fall of the Soviet Union.
Wow. That is an impressive age to live to.
That’s a cool plaque.
Mummy?
I’m skeptical any time one of these “oldest person” claims comes up. But in this case they would have had to have had her daughter’s birth wrong too, since Elizabeth was unlikely to have had her at much younger than 19.
Not sure why you get downvoted. This was even one of the winners of the ignoble prize this year https://theconversation.com/the-data-on-extreme-human-ageing-is-rotten-from-the-inside-out-ig-nobel-winner-saul-justin-newman-239023
People are generally the oldest where record keeping is the worst or where records have been lost. Doesn’t mean everyone is lying but in many cases the claimed age is not correct.
I think the downvotes came from people who find me naive and think this woman actually had her daughter at a younger age and is lying about it.
Actually, in some of these cases it turns out to be the child claiming to be the parent. So my statement was naive.
since Elizabeth was unlikely to have had her at much younger than 19.
Why? Because you think she would’ve got married earliest at 18 and never had sex before it?
She could’ve been fucking plenty and then gotten married when she got pregnant. And you don’t need to be that old to marry, and 100 years ago even less so.
In states without a legislated minimum, common law (which specifies a minimum of 12 years old for females and 14 years old for males) prevails; the estimated effect of a common law is similar to a legislated minimum of 13 or less
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_age_in_the_United_States
