Oldest Living American Dies, Remembered By Family As Representation Of Advancement Of ‘Black African American Race And Culture’ In U.S.

The oldest living American, Hester Ford, passed away peacefully in her home on Saturday, according to reports by her family.

The exact age of Hester Ford is unknown because of conflicting census reports, but she was either 115 or 116 years old when she passed away in her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Associated Press reported that the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks “supercentenarians” listed Ford’s age as 115 years and 245 days.

Robert D. Young is the director of the GRG’s supercentenarian research and database division. Young told the Charlotte Observer on Sunday that the evidence seems to suggest that the age of 115 is more probable.

“The reality is, Hester Ford’s age, even at 115, still made her the last known American born before 1906,” Young said via email to the outlet. “When you consider that she was a mother of a WWII-era veteran … it really puts into perspective: This was one of our last living links to an era that is nearly bygone.”

In a statement emailed to the Charlotte Observer on Saturday, her great-granddaughter, Tanisha Patterson-Powe, said, “She was a pillar and stalwart to our family and provided much needed love, support and understanding to us all. She was the seed that sprouted leaves and branches which is now our family. God saw fit to make her the matriarch of our family and blessed us to be her caretakers and recipients of her legacy.”

The Observer reported that Ford was born on a farm in Lancaster County, South Carolina, where she grew up working by plowing and picking cotton. At the age of 14, she was married to John Ford and gave birth to their first child when she was 15 years old. The couple would go on to have 11 more children. She took care of the farm, house, and her family while her husband, John, worked at a steel mill in the local area.

The outlet reported, “The couple eventually sold the farm and moved to Charlotte, building a house near the intersection of Interstates 77 and 85 around 1960.” Ford lived in the same house by herself until she was 108 years old, even after her husband died only three years after they had moved there. Her family members eventually insisted that someone live in the home with her after she fell and bruised her ribs. For the past few years, family members lived in the house with her and helped take care of her.

“Her light shined beyond her local area and she lived beyond a century with memories containing real life experience of over 100 years,” Patterson-Powe said in her statement. “She not only represented the advancement of our family but of the Black African American race and culture in our country. She was a reminder of how far we have come as people on this earth.”

The coronavirus pandemic was the second global pandemic that Ford experienced after going through the influenza pandemic in 1918.

During an interview with the local outlet last summer, Ford was asked about the secret to her long life. She answered, “I just live right, all I know.”

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