Subject:      The Oldest Person Alive
From:         le@put.com  (Louis Epstein) 
Date:         1997/08/14 
Message-Id:   <EEx15J.7Jy@nonexistent.com> 
Newsgroups:   alt.obituaries



The Guinness Book editors have made an announcement after verifying 
submitted claims to succeed Jeanne Calment as the oldest person alive. 
 
In first place is a woman in Quebec, 
Marie-Louise Febronie (Chasse) Meilleur, 
born August 29th 1880. 
 
In second is a woman near Philadelphia, 
Sarah Knauss, 
born September 24th 1880. 
 
In each case these women take over their countries' previously accepted 
national records.The United States record was fairly recent,having been 
set by Mme. Calment's immediate predecessor as world doyenne, Carrie 
C. (Joyner) White (November 18th 1874-Feb 16th 1991). (It is worth noting 
that the Connecticut ex-schoolteacher who was born in 1881 and died short 
of her birthday in 1996 was therefore never actually the oldest living 
person in the USA,only thought to be). I suppose only the world title was 
considered worth a claim to her? 
 
The Canadian record, however, was the oldest in the book, set by Pierre 
Joubert(Jul 15th 1701-Nov 16th 1814). Joubert was also recorded as the 
world recordholder by Guinness until the mid-1970s when they satisfied 
themselves that Delina (Ecker) Filkins had surpassed him in 1928. 
 
In the musing department, if before he died Joubert had met Channel 
Islands recordholder Margaret Ann (Harvey) Neve (1792-1903) as a young 
woman,and Mrs. Meilleur had as a young woman met Mrs. Neve, it would 
still be possible for her to have heard as an adult stories of the 
early 18th century heard as an adult from someone who had been there! 
 
It is worth noting that Mrs. Meilleur, unlike Mme. Calment, has genes still 
in the pool...she has over 300 descendants!!