Susannah Mushatt Jones
| Susannah Mushatt Jones | |
|---|---|
Susannah Mushatt Jones at age 116
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| Born |
Susannah Mushatt July 6, 1899 Lowndes County, Alabama |
| Died | May 12, 2016 (aged 116 years, 311 days) Brooklyn, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Oldest living person (June 17, 2015 – May 12, 2016) |
| Spouse(s) | Henry Jones (m. 1928; div. 1933) |
| Parent(s) | Callie & Mary Mushatt |
Susannah Mushatt Jones (July 6, 1899 – May 12, 2016) was an American supercentenarian who was, at the age of 116 years and 311 days, the world's oldest living person and the last living American born in the 19th century. She received tributes from the United States House of Representatives and from the Alabama House of Representatives "for a remarkable lifetime of exceptional achievement lived during three centuries."
Susannah Mushatt was born to Callie and Mary Mushatt on July 6, 1899, in Lowndes County, Alabama. She was the third child and oldest daughter of eleven children. Her parents were African-American sharecroppers who farmed the same land as her grandparents. (Her grandmother, an ex-slave, reportedly lived for 117 years based on census data.) According to her family, she also had some Native American ancestry. As a young woman, she worked in the fields and was determined to escape that hard existence. On March 4, 1922, she graduated from the Calhoun Boarding High School and the graduation roster recognized her for studying "Negro Music in France". After graduation, she wanted to become a teacher and was accepted to Tuskegee Institute's Teacher's Program. Her parents could not afford tuition, so in 1923, she moved to New York during the early stages of the Harlem Renaissance.
In 1928 she married Henry Jones, but divorced him in 1933, saying in 2011 that she "didn't know what became of him". She had no children. She worked for wealthy families taking care of their children for $7 a week. During this time, she supported many of her relatives as they moved to New York. She also used some of her salary to establish The Calhoun Club, which was a college scholarship fund for African-American students at her high school. She was active in her neighborhood for almost 30 years, participating in the "tenant patrol team". In 1965, she retired and lived with her niece Lavilla Watson and helped care for Watson's baby son. At the time of her death she resided at the Vandalia Senior Center in East New York, Brooklyn, and had more than 100 nieces and nephews.
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