Susannah Mushatt Jones

Susannah Mushatt Jones (July 6, 1899 – May 12, 2016) was an American supercentenarian who was, aged 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."

Biography

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.

As a young woman she worked in the fields, and later said she was determined to find different work. In 1922, she graduated from the Calhoun Colored 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", and had no children. She worked for wealthy families taking care of their children for $7 a week, and 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".