Marie-Louise Meilleur

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:	CAN
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. At the age of 20, she married Étienne Leclerc, another fisherman of her village. 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. 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. 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

[1]

At middle age

Aged 56

In the 1960s with husband Hector Meilleur

Undated, with her sisters-in-law

Undated

Undated

Aged 95

Aged 98

Aged 100

Aged 106

Aged 108

Aged 109

On her 113th birthday in 1993

Aged 114

Aged 115

Aged 117

Videos

Marie-Louise Meilleur - 117 birthday

References

• Gerontology Research Group

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

Betsy Baker • Jennie Howell • Marie Carstenson • Nancy Ryan • Christina 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 Wilson • Mathew Beard • 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 • 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 Brown • Nabi Tajima • Chiyo Miyako • Kane Tanaka • Lucile Randon

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

Betsy Baker • Jennie Howell • Marie Carstenson • Nancy Ryan • Christina 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 Miyako • Kane Tanaka • Lucile Randon

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