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Emma Morano-Martinuzzi
Emma Morano
Morano on her 117th birthday in 2016
Birth: 29 November 1899
Civiasco, Vercelli, Piedmont, Italy
Death: 15 April 2017
Verbania, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piedmont, Italy
Age: 117 years, 137 days
Country: Italy ITA
Validated

Emma Martina Luigia Morano-Martinuzzi (29 November 1899 – 15 April 2017) was an Italian supercentenarian, believed to have been the oldest validated living person in the world following the death of American Susannah Mushatt Jones on 12 May 2016 until her own death on 15 April 2017. She was the last known surviving validated person born in the 1800s, and one of the last three born in the 19th Century. She was the oldest living person in Italy and Europe since the death of Maria Redaelli on 2 April 2013. She also holds the title of the oldest validated Italian person ever. She is currently the eighth-oldest validated person ever. Morano celebrated her 117th birthday on 29 November 2016. She is one of only three validated European supercentenarians to reach the age of 117, with the other two being Jeanne Calment and Lucile Randon of France.

Biography

Emma Martina Luigia Morano was the eldest of the eight (five daughters and three sons) children born to Giovanni Morano and Matilde Bresciani on 29 November 1899 in Civiasco in the Province of Vercelli in Italy. When she was a child, she moved from the Sesia Valley to Ossola for her father's job, but the climate was unhealthy there, so a physician advised her family to live somewhere with a milder climate, so the family moved to Pallanza, on Lake Maggiore, where Morano lived until her death. Her mother, aunt, and some of her siblings reached the age of 90, and her sister Angela Morano (1908–2011) died at the age of 102. Angela and Emma were the oldest known living siblings in Italy until Angela died.

Morano married Giovanni Martinuzzi (1901–1978) in 1926, when she was 27 and he was 25. They had a son in 1937, but unfortunately, he died six months after birth. The marriage wasn't happy (as Giovanni reportedly engaged in spousal abuse), and in 1938 she drove her husband out of the house and they separated, but were formally married until his death. She said she never took drugs, ate three eggs a day, and drank a glass of homemade brandy. Morano worked in a jute factory until 1954 and then worked as a cook in a kitchen at a boarding school until retiring in 1974 at the age of 74.

Morano died in Verbania, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy on 15 April 2017 from Heart Disease at the age of 117 years, 137 days. Following her death, Violet Brown succeeded her as the world’s oldest validated living person.

Gallery

References


World's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (VE)

Betsy BakerJennie HowellMarie CarstensonNancy RyanChristina Karnebeek-Backs • Marie Olsen • Mary Kelly • Elizabeth Kensley • William Fullingim • Hannah Smith • John Mosley Turner • Johanna Booysen • Marie Bernatkova • Ada Roe • Josefa Salas Mateo • Alice Stevenson • Elizabeth Watkins • Mito Umeta • Niwa Kawamoto • Sophia DeMuth • Marie-Virginie Duhem • Fannie Thomas • Augustine Tessier • Nellie Spencer • Emma WilsonAugusta Holtz • Mary McKinney • Anna Eliza Williams • Florence Knapp • Jeanne Calment • Marie-Louise Meilleur • Sarah Knauss • Eva Morris • Marie Bremont • Maud Farris-Luse • Grace Clawson • Adelina Domingues • Mae Harrington • Yukichi Chuganji • Mitoyo Kawate • Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan • Maria Capovilla • Elizabeth Bolden • Emiliano Mercado del Toro • Emma Tillman • Yone Minagawa • Edna Parker • Maria de Jesus • Gertrude Baines • Kama Chinen • Eugenie Blanchard • Maria Gomes Valentim • Besse Cooper • Dina Manfredini • Jiroemon Kimura • Misao Okawa • Gertrude Weaver • Jeralean Talley • Susannah Mushatt Jones • Emma Morano • Violet BrownNabi Tajima • Chiyo MiyakoKane TanakaLucile RandonMaria Branyas Morera


World's Oldest Living Woman Titleholders (VE)

Betsy BakerJennie HowellMarie CarstensonNancy RyanChristina Karnebeek-Backs • Marie Olsen • Mary Kelly • Elizabeth Kensley • Auguste Pahl • Hannah Smith • Yoshigiku Ito • Johanna Booysen • Marie Bernatkova • Ada Roe • Josefa Salas Mateo • Alice Stevenson • Elizabeth Watkins • Mito Umeta • Niwa Kawamoto • Sophia DeMuth • Marie-Virginie Duhem • Fannie Thomas • Augustine Tessier • Nellie Spencer • Emma Wilson • Augusta Holtz • Mary McKinney • Anna Eliza Williams • Florence Knapp • Jeanne Calment • Marie-Louise Meilleur • Sarah Knauss • Eva Morris • Marie Bremont • Maud Farris-Luse • Grace Clawson • Adelina Domingues • Mae Harrington • Mitoyo Kawate • Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan • Maria Capovilla • Elizabeth Bolden • Julie Winnefred Bertrand • Emma Tillman • Yone Minagawa • Edna Parker • Maria de Jesus • Gertrude Baines • Kama Chinen • Eugenie Blanchard • Maria Gomes Valentim • Besse Cooper • Dina Manfredini • Koto Okubo • Misao Okawa • Gertrude Weaver • Jeralean Talley • Susannah Mushatt Jones • Emma Morano • Violet Brown • Nabi Tajima • Chiyo MiyakoKane TanakaLucile RandonMaria Branyas Morera


Europe's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (VE)

Willem van Renterghem • Marie d'Evergroote • Lavina Hansdatter • Kirsti Skagen • Geert Adriaans Boomgaard • Margaret Ann Neve • Karen BrodbaekSophia Wijnberg • Agnete Olsdatter • Honor Coleman • Sophie Lacomte • Maria Vleminckx • Johanna Berns • Matthias Dodenhoff • Sarah Gardiner • Elisabeth Jensen • Britta Njeldsdatter • Frederick Stabbins • Jane Lister • Martha Truelove • Ann Sharp • Gertrud Kübbeler • Marie Delfairiere • Frances Smith • Katherine Plunket • Eliza Roff • Maria Montemurro • Ellen Palmer • Rachel MacArthur • Anne Marie SkauRachel Swain • Wilhelmine Olschewski • Mary Davey • Francesco Cubadda • Thomas Pope • John Francklow • Rebecca Lees • Sarah Fitt • Johanna Johansson • Elizabeth Sellwood • Petronella Braams • Matilda Coppins • Elizabeth Whitehead • Karl Glockner • Sarah Humphrey • Maria Johansson • Michelina Macchia • Caroline Beale • Josephine Marchal • Luise Rissmann • Christina Karnebeek-Backs • Marie Olsen • Willem Kostering • Ella Ille Rentel • Lovisa Svensson • Ellen Dart • Elizabeth Kensley • Auguste Pahl • Hannah Smith • Anna KrslencovaJohn Mosley Turner • Marie Bernatkova • Ada Roe • Josefa Salas Mateo • Alice Stevenson • Frederick Butterfield • Rose Heeley • Marie-Virginie Duhem • Josefa Llovet • Florence PannellAugustine Tessier • Jeanetta Thomas • Alice Brewster • Petronella Ribbens-Verstallen • Anna Eliza Williams • Jeanne Calment • Lucy Askew • Annie Jennings • Eva Morris • Marie Bremont • Amy Hulmes • Germaine Haye • Teresa Fumarola • Joan Riudavets-Moll • Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper • Virginia Dighero-Zolezzi • Camille Loiseau • Maria de Jesus • Manuela Fernandez-Fojaco • Lucia Lauria • Florrie Baldwin • Venere Pizzinato-Papo • Marcelle Narbonne • Marie-Therese Bardet • Maria Redaelli • Emma Morano • Ana Vela Rubio • Giuseppina Projetto • Maria Giuseppa Robucci • Lucile RandonMaria Branyas Morera


Italy's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • TE)

Maria Fionda • Maria Luisa Pepe • Carmela Sansone • Paolina Picchi • Marta Cerruti • Eugenia Raco • Francesco Paba • Maria Irrigato • Francesco Soldati Gabbini • Peppa Ferrante • Giuseppina Misasi • Vincenza Pannuti • Maria Imperiali • Ulrico Miani • Assunta Mazzotta • Caterina Cipolla • Lida Bertonati • Nazzarena Di Leo • Santa Caddeo • Carolina Piatti • Annunziata Di Vincenzo • Luigi Saba • Ida Pietrobon • Giuseppe De Bonis • Cesare Di Claudio • Ottavia Trafeli • Rosalinda Del Duca • Paolo Gioletta • Luigina Pepe • Francesca Adelfio • Domenico Minervino • Maddalena Figone • Maria Sirianni • Giuseppa Spolitu • Chelidonia Merosi-Lollobrigida • Valentino Stella • Eleonora Casagrande • Maria Addolorata de Vitis • Antonio Baldo • Giovanna Lizzio • Antonio Todde • Teresa Fumarola • Giovanni Frau • Virginia Dighero-Zolezzi • Giulia Sani-Casagli • Lorenza Dotta • Maria Negri • Lucia Lauria • Ida Frabboni • Venere Pizzinato-Papo • Stella Nardari-Vecchiato • Maria Redaelli • Emma Morano • Marie-Josephine GaudetteGiuseppina Projetto-FrauMaria Giuseppa RobucciAnna BenericettiValesca TanganelliErminia BianchiniMaria OlivaIda ZoccaratoAngela TiraboschiDomenica ErcolaniClaudia Baccarini

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