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Elsada Duncan
Elsada Duncan
Elsada Duncan on her 110th birthday
Birth: 15 January 1908
Brainerd, St. Mary, Jamaica
Death: 16 March 2019
Milton, Georgia, USA
Age: 111 years, 60 says
Country: JamaicaJAMUnited StatesUSA
Unvalidated

Elsada Miriam Duncan (15 January 1908 – 16 March 2019) was a Jamaican-American supercentenarian whose age is currently unvalidated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG). She may have been the oldest living person born in Jamaica following the death of Amy Johnson on 6 June 2018.

Biography

Elsada Duncan was born in Brainerd, St. Mary, Jamaica on 15 January 1908 to parents Charles and Grace Ann (née Pinnock) Duncan, who were local farmers. She was the seventh child out of 13 the couple had. She started school at the age of eight, but financial difficulties meant she had to leave when she was 15.

Two years later, Duncan moved to Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, and joined a church to devote her life to Christ. She took up dressmaking, and often created entire outfits for wedding guests and church-goers. She later had a daughter, Norma (born June 1940). She also adopted her niece and then her niece’s son in 1942.

Duncan and her children were active members of the Bethel Apostic in Jones Town, Jamaica, and later joined the Born-Again Church of Jesus Christ-Apostolic, where she was appointed an Evangelist. She was also one of the founding members of that church and was respectfully referred to as "Mother Duncan".

Duncan’s daughter, Norma, bore her six grandchildren, but the eldest two died in infancy. Her faith in God helped the family cope with the losses. In 1980, Duncan broke her ankle, and in 1997, she broke her hip, but she made a full recovery from both injuries. She started to use a walker as a nonagenarian.

In the early 1990s, Duncan emigrated to the USA with her family, first settling in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, but moved to Milton, Georgia, USA in 1995. By the time Elsada was 100, she had outlived all of her siblings. On her 100th birthday in 2008 and on her 110th birthday in 2018, she received visits from the Mayor of Milton, Joe Lockwood.

Duncan died in Milton, Georgia, USA, at the age of 111 years, 60 days. She was the third-oldest living person in Georgia behind Maggie Kidd and Ethel Sinclaire at the time of her death.

References

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