Bernice Madigan

Bernice Madigan
Bernice Madigan on Derby Day, 2013
Born	Bernice Emerson July 24, 1899 West Springfield, Massachusetts
Died	January 3, 2015 (aged 7009364320720000000♠115 years, 163 days) Cheshire, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Title	Oldest living resident of Massachusetts
Spouse(s)	Paul Madigan (1896–1976) (m. 1925–1976; his death)
Parent(s)	Harry and Grace (Bennett) Emerson

Bernice Madigan (July 24, 1899 – January 3, 2015) was an American supercentenarian who was the oldest living resident of Massachusetts, the fourth-oldest living person in the United States, and the world's fifth-oldest living person before her death. She is one of 100 centenarians in The Archon Genomics XPRIZE.

Bernice Emerson was born on July 24, 1899 in West Springfield, Massachusetts. When she was 6, she moved to Cheshire, where she later died. She graduated from Adams High School in 1918, and thereafter moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a secretary for the Veterans Administration, then the Treasury Department.

A lifelong Republican, she attended the Inauguration of Warren G. Harding in 1921, and cited Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan as her favorite U.S. Presidents. "Reagan accomplished more for the government. Eisenhower I thought was very good in some ways in the White House. I liked them both very much." Madigan met her husband, Paul, in Washington, and they were married 51 years. Paul died in 1976. She has outlived a brother, Roy Emerson, and a sister, Marilyn Emerson Martin. She returned to Cheshire from Silver Spring, Maryland in 2007.

Madigan did not take any medicine nor a daily vitamin. Madigan died at the age of 115 years, 163 days in her sleep at 2 a.m. on January 3, 2015.