| Marie Laure du Serre-Telmon | |
| Birth: | 4 January 1860 San Joaquín, Anaco, Anzoátegui, Venezuela |
| Death: | 8 January 1977? Ivry-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France |
| Age: | 117 years, 4 days? |
| Country: |  VEN FRA
|
| Disputed | |
Marie Laure du Serre-Telmon (born María Laura; 4 January 1860 – 8 January 1977?) was a Venezuelan-French supercentenarian claimant whose age is currently debunked. At the time of her death, her age as reported on her death certificate would have made her the oldest person ever, as well as the first person in recorded history to reach the ages of 114 through 117, if valid. However, it now appears to have been a case of confusion between sisters, as the woman who died in 1977 was the younger sister of the girl born in 1860.
Biography
Marie Laure du Serre-Telmon was born on 4 January 1860 in San Joaquin (Venezuela). Her father was a French citizen who emigrated to San Joaquin, and her mother was Venezuelan.
According to French GRG correspondent Cyril Depoudent, Marie Laure had 4 older siblings, born in 1850, 1852, 1854, and 1857 in San Joaquin, and 2 younger siblings, born in 1863 in Nancy (mainland France) and 1866 in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (French Guiana). Her family had to leave San Joaquin in 1860 because of the civil war, so Marie Laure was baptized in Maturin, Venezuela on 23 August 1860. Her family then returned to mainland France, but later settled in French Guiana.
Marie Laure du Serre-Telmon married Alfred Jules Arsène François Cor on 18 September 1882 in Cayenne. They didn't have children and later divorced in 1907. Cor later remarried, while Marie Laure du Serre-Telmon returned again to mainland France, in Paris. From this point on, she no longer appears in any records, and her whereabouts for the next 70 years before her death remain unknown.
Her age had been confused with her younger sister Octavie, who had an intency to round down her age in order to make herself younger. That's why Laure has two death certificates in her name. Octavie died in 1977 in Ivry-Sur-Seine, 117 years and 4 days old by Laures certificate. Octavie realy was 103 (claimed 99) .Laure eventually died in Montomorency in 1948 at the age of 88.