Marie-Louise Meilleur | |
![]() Marie-Louise Meilleur aged 116 | |
Birth: | 29 August 1880 Kamouraska, Québec, Canada |
Death: | 16 April 1998 East Ferris, Ontario, Canada |
Age: | 117 years, 230 days |
Country: | ![]() |
Validated |
Marie-Louise Meilleur (née Chasse; 29 August 1880 – 16 April 1998) is the verified Canadian longevity record holder. After the death of Jeanne Calment, Marie-Louise became the oldest living person in the world. Marie-Louise is currently ranked as the 6th-oldest validated person of all-time.
History
Marie-Louise Febronie Chasse was born in Kamouraska, Quebec, in 1880, to fisherman parents. According to her family, she had some Native American ancestry.[1] At the age of 20, she married Étienne Leclerc, another fisherman of her village.[2] After he, two of her children and both of her parents died in 1911 and 1912, Meilleur left two of her four surviving children in 1913 and moved to the rural Ontario border. Only once, in 1939, did she return to the Quebec area.[3] She married in 1915 Hector Meilleur, a Franco-Ontarian woodcutter, and with him, she had another 6 children. She lived in Deep River. At 107 years old, she left to a nursing home in East Ferris.[4] At the age of 110 Meilleur was still able to walk without assistance.
Marie-Louise lived on a wood house without electricity and hot water until the 1950's. Some sources said that she was vegetarian, but this is not confirmed. Marie-Louise smoked Tobacco until her 90's.
She attributed her longevity to "Hard work, remember the good times of her youth, loved her family, having a good sense of humor and having good faith to God and Mary".
After Lillian Ross died in 1993, Marie-Louise became the oldest living person in Canada.
After Marie-Louise died at the age of 117 years, 230 days, from a blood clot in East Ferris, Ontario, Sarah Knauss succeeded her as the oldest validated living person in the world.
For almost 20 years, Marie-Louise sustained her rank as the 4th-oldest validated person of all time unbroken until Nabi Tajima of Japan surpassed her age on 23 March 2018.
Gallery
Videos
References
- ↑ Marie-Louise (Chassé) Meilleur Wordpress
- ↑ Marie-Louise (Chassé) Meilleur Wordpress
- ↑ Marie-Louise Meilleur, 117, And Felicie Cormier, 118 New York Times, 18 April 1998
- ↑ Marie-Louise (Chassé) Meilleur Wordpress
Canada's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • E) |
Flore Beland • Emma Bingham • (Herman Smith-Johannsen) • Mary Ann Essery • Clara Robertson • 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 |