Julie Winnefred Bertrand

Julie Winnefred Bertrand
Birth:	16 September 1891 Coaticook, Quebec, Canada
Death:	18 January 2007 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Age:	115 years, 124 days
Country:	CAN
Validated

Julie Winnefred Bertrand (16 September 1891 – 18 January 2007) was a Canadian supercentenarian, who was at the time of death at the age of 115 years, 124 days, the oldest living woman in the world and the second-oldest living person in the world after Emiliano Mercado del Toro, who was 26 days older than her.

Biography

Bertrand was born on 16 September 1891, in the town of Coaticook, Quebec. She was the eldest of six children born to Napoleon Bertrand, and his wife Julia Mullins, an Irish immigrant. Growing up, she became acquainted with Louis St. Laurent, who would later become Prime Minister of Canada. There was speculation as to how close the two were, although Bertrand herself never married.

Bertrand worked as a clothes buyer and saleswoman in Coaticook for much of her life. She resided at Residences Berthiaume de Tremblay, a long-term care facility in Montreal, for the last 35 years of her life.

Bertrand died on 18 January 2007, just six days before the death of Emiliano Mercado del Toro, the then oldest living person. Bertrand was the last surviving woman born in 1891. After her death, the title of oldest living woman passed to American supercentenarian Emma Tillman.

Winnefred Bertrand currently is the second-oldest person ever born in Quebec, behind Marie-Louise Meilleur, the oldest person ever who died in Quebec, and the third-oldest validated Canadian person ever, behind Marie-Louise Meilleur, and Mary Ann Rhodes.

Gallery

Bertrand in an undated photo

References

• Gerontology Research Group

World's Oldest Living Woman Titleholders (V • E)

Nancy Merriman • Betsy Baker • Jennie Howell • Catherine Waller • Christina Karnebeek-Backs • Marie Olsen • Mary Kelly • Elizabeth Kensley • Auguste Pahl • Hannah Smith • Yoshigiku Ito • Johanna Booysen • Marie Bernatkova • Haruno Shimada • Ada Roe • Josefa Salas Mateo • Alice Stevenson • Elizabeth Watkins • Mito Umeta • Niwa Kawamoto • Sophia DeMuth • Marie-Virginie Duhem • Eliza Underwood • Augustine Tessier • Nellie Spencer • Emma Wilson • Augusta Holtz • Mary McKinney • Anna Eliza Williams • Florence Knapp • Easter Wiggins • Jeanne Calment • Marie-Louise Meilleur • Sarah Knauss • Ella Miller • 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 Miyako • Kane Tanaka • Lucile Randon • Maria Branyas Morera • Tomiko Itooka

Canada's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • E)

Flore Beland • Emma Bingham • Herman Smith-Johannsen • Agnes Munce • Nellie Thompson • Alice Sjoquist • Lillian Ross • Marie-Louise Meilleur • Marie-Louise Meunier • Maria Mallozzi • Zelda McCague • Fanny Martland • Evangeline Saulnier • Anne Samson • Julie Winnefred Bertrand • Jennie Fitzgerald • Margaret Fitzgerald • Pearl Lutzko • Cora Hansen • Yvonne Lamoureux • Merle Barwis • Colombe Benoit-Leclerc • Orma Slack • Marguerite Wabano • Lilian Cornell • Ellen Gibb • Sarah Patenaude-Bruyere • Phyllis Ridgway • Cecile Klein • Shige Mineshiba • Mabel Mah • Helen Doan • Gertruda Gorecka • Hazel Skuce