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Nina Willis

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Nina Willis
Nina Willis
Willis on her 111th birthday in 2020
Birth: 14 January 1909
Robinson, Georgia, USA
Death: 17 May 2023
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Age: 114 years, 123 days
Country: United StatesUSA
Validated

Nina Willis (née Frazier; 14 January 1909 – 17 May 2023) was an American supercentenarian who was the oldest known person living in the U.S. state of Georgia at the time of her death. Her age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).

Biography

Nina Willis was born on 14 January 1909 in Robinson, Georgia, USA, and grew up in the town working as a farmer. She was the 13th child out of 20 children. One of her brothers, Bethuel Frazier (1902–2011), lived to the age of 109, making them one of the oldest sibling pairs on record. In 1947, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she did domestic work and worked in Kessler's Department Store. She was married to Charles Willis, and the couple did not have any children.

Willis lived in a retirement home in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She still watched baseball and basketball whenever there were games on TV, and read the newspaper every day when she woke up. Her caretaker was her sister, Pecola Kirby, with whom she was very close.

On occasion of her 114th birthday, Nina Willis was visited by Robert Young, GRG Director for Supercentenarian Research and Database Department, as well as the Guinness World Records’ Senior Consultant for Gerontology.

She died on 17 May 2023 at the age of 114 years, 123 days.

Longevity Records

Willis had been the oldest known living person in the state of Georgia since the death of Willie Mae Hardy on 11 December 2019.

Willis became the oldest living African-American person following the death of 113-year old Christine Ireland on 18 August 2021.

Since the death of Bessie Hendricks on 3 January 2023, Willis was one of only three people living in the United States that were born in the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the other two being Edie Ceccarelli, and Hazel Plummer. However, Maria Branyas Morera was born in the United States before all three of these supercentenarians, but lives in Spain.

At the time of her death, Willis was the third-oldest validated living person in the United States (after Edie Ceccarelli and Hazel Plummer), and the fourth-oldest validated living American-born person (after Maria Branyas Morera, Ceccarelli, and Plummer). She was also the seventh-oldest living person in the world whose age is validated by the GRG.

WIllis’ age was verified by Robert Young, Waclaw Jan Kroczek, and Oliver Thorpe, and validated by the GRG on 4 January 2023.

Gallery

References

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