Jeanne Louise Calment
| Jeanne Calment | |
|---|---|
Calment celebrating her 121st birthday in 1996
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| Born |
Jeanne Louise Calment 21 February 1875 Arles, France |
| Died | 4 August 1997 (aged 122 years, 164 days) Arles, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for |
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| Spouse(s) | Fernand Calment (m. 1896–1942) |
| Children | 1 |
Jeanne Louise Calment (French pronunciation: [ʒan lwiz kalmɑ̃]; 21 February 1875 – 4 August 1997) was a French supercentenarian who has the longest confirmed human lifespan on record, living to the age of 122 years, 164 days. She was born and lived in Arles, France, for her entire life, outliving both her daughter and grandson by several decades. Calment became especially well known from the age of 113, when the centenary of Vincent van Gogh's visit brought reporters to Arles. Her lifespan has been extensively verified by census documents and researchers have investigated her health and lifestyle.
Calment was born in Arles on 21 February 1875. Her father, Nicolas Calment (28 January 1838 – 22 January 1931), was a shipbuilder, and her mother, Marguerite Gilles (20 February 1838 – 18 September 1924), was from a family of millers. She had an older brother, François (25 April 1865 – 1 December 1962). Some of her close family members also lived an above-average lifespan, although none lived anywhere near as long as Jeanne: her older brother François lived to the age of 97, her father to six days shy of 93, and her mother to 86.
From the age of seven until her first holy communion, Jeanne Calment attended Madame Benet's church primary school in Arles, and then attended the local college, finishing at the age of 16 with the diploma brevet classique, after which she continued to live with her parents, awaiting marriage, painting, and improving her piano skills. In 1896, at the age of 21, she married her double second cousin, Fernand Nicolas Calment (1868–1942). Their paternal grandfathers were brothers, hence the same surname, and their paternal grandmothers were also sisters. Fernand was a wealthy shop owner and she moved into the apartments above his shop Grands Magasins de Nouvautés (which still exists as of 2017, at the corner formed by rue Gambetta and rue St-Estève in Arles), where she lived until the age of 110. His wealth made it possible for Calment never to have to work; instead they led a leisured lifestyle within the upper society of Arles, pursuing hobbies such as fencing, cycling (at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence), tennis, swimming, rollerskating at Alyscamps, and playing the piano and making music with friends. In the summer, the couple would stay at Uriage for mountaineering all the way up to the glacier, getting sunburnt in the process. She also went hunting with her husband, using an 18mm rifle, in the hills of the Provence to shoot rabbits and wild boars, but disliked killing birds. Reflecting her bourgeois background, she considered the most important historical event in her lifetime to have been the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the execution of the Russian imperial family, a view shared by many fellow centenarians. The Second World War had little effect on her life in the south of France. German soldiers slept in her rooms but she bore no grudge against them because "they did not take anything away". In 1942, Fernand ate cherries treated with copper sulphate the day before, developed jaundice and died of the poisoning in the course of one and a half months at the age of 73. Jeanne had eaten fewer of the cherries and survived.
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