Susannah Mushatt Jones

About

In 2013, this Alabama-born supercentenarian earned the title of fourth oldest living person in the world. 

Before Fame

Though she had originally intended to become a teacher, she was not able to finance her education at the Tuskegee Institute and instead worked as a nanny. She later created The Calhoun Club, which offered higher-education scholarships to African-American youth.

Trivia

She believed her longevity to be the result of sleeping many hours a night, never drinking or smoking, being single, and never using cosmetics or hair dye.

Family Life

The children of sharecroppers, she and her ten siblings grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama. At the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, she relocated to New York City, where she spent the rest of her life, and where she was very briefly married to Henry Jones.

Associated With

She and her Japanese contemporary Misao Okawa were, in the later years of their lives, two of the world's longest-living people.