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Hazel Plummer

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Hazel Plummer
Hazel Plummer
Plummer celebrating her 111th birthday in 2019
Birth: 19 June 1908
Somerville, Massachusetts, USA
Death: 25 May 2023
Littleton, Massachusetts, USA
Age: 114 years, 340 days
Country: United StatesUSA
Validated

Hazel Kathleen Plummer (née Downs; 19 June 1908 – 25 May 2023) was an American supercentenarian who was the oldest known person living in the U.S. state of Massachusetts at the time of her death. Her age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).

Biography

Early Life

Hazel Plummer was born as Hazel Kathleen Downs in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA on 19 June 1908 to Harry and Margaret (née Allison) Downs. She had one older sister, Grace, and two older brothers, Elmer and George. In 1906, before Plummer was born, George died at the age of one. Plummer grew up a street apart from her future husband, Elmer – although they didn't know it at the time. The two married in 1935 and had at least two children, Roger and David.

After the eighth grade, Plummer went to trade school to become a seamstress. She went to work for an upscale designer on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts. After marrying, she raised her children while her husband worked at a steel company and then in the children's department of a department store. The family moved to Littleton, Massachusetts in 1957, where Plummer lived until her death.

Later Life

After Plummer's father died suddenly at the age of 74, her mother lived with the family for 22 years until her mother's death at the age of 94. After her husband's death in January 2000, Plummer spent 17 years living in her own second-floor apartment before moving to a nursing home in Littleton, Massachusetts, when she was 109. At the time of her 110th birthday in June 2018, Plummer had six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Plummer became the oldest known living person in the state of Massachusetts following the death of 112-year-old Dorothy Brown on 26 November 2019. In January 2020, her nursing home celebrated her achievement with a special party, and she also received a message from Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.

On 30 December 2020, at the age of 112, Plummer received her first dose of the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine, making her one of the oldest known people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. She went on to celebrate her 113th birthday on 19 June 2021.

Plummer's age was validated by the GRG on 26 June 2022, one week after her 114th birthday.

Plummer died in Littleton, Massachusetts, USA on 25 May 2023 at the age of 114 years, 340 days, just 25 days short of her 115th birthday.

Longevity Records

Since the death of Barbara Barton on 12 August 2022, Plummer had been one of only two American people born in 1908 who was still living (the other being Edie Ceccarelli). Since the death of Bessie Hendricks on 3 January 2023, she was one of only three American-born people remaining born before 1909 who was still living (the others being Maria Branyas Morera and Ceccarelli), and one of three American-born people remaining born in the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

Plummer was the second-oldest validated living person in the United States, after Edie Ceccarelli, and the third-oldest validated living American-born person, after Maria Branyas Morera and Ceccarelli. She is also the second-oldest validated person ever from the U.S. state of Massachusetts, after Bernice Madigan.

At the time of her death, Plummer ranked as the sixth-oldest living person in the world whose age is validated by the GRG, after Maria Branyas Morera, Fusa Tatsumi, Edie Ceccarelli, Tomiko Itooka, and Inah Canabarro Lucas.

Gallery

References

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