Jeanne Calment
From Free net encyclopedia
Jeanne Louise Calment (February 21 1875 – August 4 1997) has the longest confirmed lifespan (122 years and 164 days) for any human being in history. Her lifespan has been thoroughly documented by scientific study; more records have been produced to verify her age than for any other case.
If the questionable cases of Shigechiyo Izumi and Carrie White are discounted, Jeanne would be the first person to reach 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121 and 122 years old. She is the only undisputed person to have lived more than 119 years.
She was 14 when the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889, and had an extremely active life, taking up fencing at age 85, and was still riding a bicycle at age 100. Her brother lived to the age of 97, her father 94, and her mother lived to the age of 86.
She married her second cousin Fernand Calment in 1896, and survived him (he died in 1942, four years before their 50th wedding anniversary), her daughter (Yvonne, who died 1934) and her grandson (who died 1963 in a motorcycle accident). In 1965, with no living heirs, Jeanne Calment signed a deal, common in France, to sell her condominium apartment en viager to lawyer François Raffray, then 47.
Raffray agreed to pay a monthly sum until she passed away, an agreement sometimes called a "reverse mortgage". She was then 90, and the value of the apartment was equal to ten years of payments. Unfortunately for Raffray, not only did she survive more than thirty years, but he died first, in December 1995, of cancer, at the age of 77. His widow had to continue the payments.
In 1985, Calment moved into a nursing home, after living on her own until age 110. However, she did not gain international fame until 1988, when the centenary of Van Gogh's visit to Arles provided an occasion to meet reporters. She said that in her younger years, she met Vincent van Gogh, later describing him as "dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable."
Soon after this interview, Calment was given the Guinness "world's oldest person" title at age 113 (first mentioned in Guinness World Records 1989, new claims at the end). In 1989 the title was taken back and given to Carrie C. White (1874 or 1888 to February 14, 1991). Subsequent census research suggests that Guinness may have been right the first time. Calment was to regain her title officially on February 14, 1991, a week shy of 116.
By late 1991 Calment was recognized as the oldest female supercentenarian on record--a record she would extend for six more years. On October 17, 1995 Calment reached 120 years 238 days to become the Guinness "oldest person ever," surpassing Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan (whose claim to 120 years 237 days is subject to some doubt).
At the age of 114, she appeared briefly in the film Vincent and Me as herself, making her the oldest actress ever. A French-language documentary film about her life, entitled Beyond 120 Years with Jeanne Calment, was released in 1995. In 1996, the nursing home where she lived released a CD Time's Mistress. It featured her reminiscing, set to rap and other tunes. She also was a smoker and only quit when she was 117 years old, because, nearly blind, she felt embarrassed to ask for a light. She was the last recognized surviving person of the 1870s.
Following her death, Marie-Louise Meilleur of Canada became the oldest recognized person in the world.
Quotes
- "J'ai été oubliée par le Bon Dieu." ("I've been forgotten by our Good Lord.")
- "I took pleasure when I could. I acted clearly and morally and without regret. I'm very lucky."
- "I've only got one wrinkle, and I'm sitting on it."
- "Wine, I'm in love with that."
- On her 120th birthday, she was asked what she thought her future would be like. "Very short," she answered.
See also
- Ageing
- Senescence
- Camille Louiseau Chadal, presently the oldest woman in France.
References
- Allard, Michel. 1998. Jeanne Calment: from Van Gogh's time to ours, 122 extraordinary years. New York: WH Freeman. ISBN 0716732513.
- Robine, Jean-Marie and Michel Allard. 1999. "Jeanne Calment: Validation of the Duration of Her Life", in Validation of Exceptional Longevity, Bernard Jeune and James W. Vaupel, eds. Odense University Press. ISBN 87-7838-466-4
Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:End box
de:Jeanne Calment fr:Jeanne Calment he:ז'אן לואיז קלמנט nl:Jeanne-Louise Calment ja:ジャンヌ・カルマン no:Jeanne Louise Calment pl:Jeanne Calment fi:Jeanne Calment sv:Jeanne Calment