1. Jeanne Louise Calment

1 Feb 1875 – 4 Aug 1997 (122 years, 6 mos, 3 days)

Arles, France

Her family members also lived to an old age. Her brother, François, lived to the age of 97, her father, Nicolas, 93, and her mother, Marguerite, 86. In 1985, Calment moved into a nursing home, having lived on her own until age 110. At age 85, she took up fencing. At 100, she was still riding a bicycle. She reportedly attributed her longevity and relatively youthful appearance (for her age) to olive oil, which she said she poured on all her food and rubbed into her skin. She said: "I have only one wrinkle and I'm sitting on it."

2. Marie-Louise Fébronie Chassé Meilleur

29 Aug 1880 – 16 Apr 1998 (117 years, 7 mos, 18 days)

Kamouraska, Quebec

Although she generally cited hard work as the reason for her longevity, Mrs. Meilleur, who was known to enjoy a glass of wine, had perhaps added to her life span when she quit smoking at the age of 90. Mrs. Cormier, her family said, neither smoked nor drank. She attributed her longevity to taking care of her self and going to bed early and getting up early.
She was said to be a vegetarian.

3. Sarah DeRemer (Clark) Knauss

24 Sep 1880 – 30 Dec 1999 (119 years, 3 mos, 6 days)

Hollywood, Pennsylvania

Her daughter, Kathryn Sullivan, who was 96 at the time of Sarah's death, once explained Knauss' three-digit age by saying: "She's a very tranquil person and nothing fazes her. That's why she's living this long." In 1995, when asked if she enjoyed her long life, Knauss said matter-of-factly: "I enjoy it because I have my health and I can do things." Her passions were said to be watching golf on television, doing needlepoint, and nibbling on milk chocolate turtles, cashews, and potato chips. Officials said that, to their knowledge, she had not been ill.

4. Joan Riudavets Moll

15 Dec 1889 – 5 Mar 2004 (114 years, 2 mos, 18 days)

Menorca, Spain

Uncommonly fit for a supercentenarian, he was able to walk and ride a bicycle until he was 113 years old. He was survived by two younger brothers: Joseph celebrated his 100th birthday in January 2007, and Pere died in 2006, aged 105, the oldest living resident on the island at the time of his death.

5. Shigechiyo Izumi ( 泉 重千代 )

29 Jun 1865? – 21 Feb 1986 (120 years, 7 mos, 23 days)

Tokunoshima, Amami Islands, Japan

He began his career in 1872 goading draft animals at a sugar mill, and retired as a sugarcane farmer in 1970 at the age of 105. His wife died at the age of 90. He drank shōchū (a Japanese alcoholic beverage distilled from barley), and took up smoking at age 70. He attributed his long life to "God, Buddha and the Sun." He stood at 1.42 meters (four feet, eight inches) tall, weighed 42.6 kilograms (94 pounds) and lived through 71 Japanese Prime Ministers.

6. Christian Mortensen

16 Aug 1882 - 25 Apr 1998 (115 years, 8 mos, 9 days)

Skårup, Denmark

Full name: Thomas Peter Thorvald Kristian Ferdinand Mortensen. In 1903, he immigrated to the United States, and lived in various areas and worked in various trades including as a milkman and in a can factory. In Denmark, Mortensen had worked as a farmhand and apprenticed as a tailor. He apparently was married only briefly and never had children. Mortensen enjoyed an occasional cigar, and, very unusually for a supercentenarian, was known to show a bit of feistiness even in his final years...
If you asked Chris about the key to his longevity, he would usually respond something like "Live a good, clean life!" By that he meant to eat well, exercise, take care of yourself, and of course, drink lots of water. It also meant smoking an occasional cigar if that makes you happy. On his 115th birthday, he was quoted as saying, "Friends, a good cigar, drinking lots of good water, no alcohol, staying positive, and lots of singing will keep you alive for a long time." (link)

7. Charlotte Marion Milburn Hughes

1 Aug 1877 - 17 Mar 1993 (115 years, 7 mos, 16 days)

United Kingdom

She remained fit into extreme old age and achieved public recognition for her longevity, including tea with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom she admonished against cuddling up to her, as Hughes was a Labour supporter. Hughes told Thatcher that she "Supported Labour". However, she described the Prime Minister as "personally a very nice woman". When she turned 110, she flew on the Concorde to New York, one of only two supercentenarian air passengers ever recorded.

8. Fred H. Hale, Sr.

1 Dec 1890 - 19 Nov 2004 (113 years, 11 mos, 18 days)

New Sharon, Maine

There were only forty-three stars on the American flag when he was born in Maine. Recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest licensed driver at age 108 (his pet peeve was slow drivers) he was still living by himself at age 103. At age 109, he moved to Liverpool, New York to be near his youngest son. At age 113, he played cards, and, after cataract operations at ages 109 and 110, still had unusually good vision for a supercentenarian. He traveled more extensively after his 95th year than many people do in a lifetime. Fred was the oldest retired railway postal worker ever, the oldest retired U.S. government employee ever and the oldest registered beekeeper ever, among other honors and records. He often related the true story of his last successful deer hunt at age 100 in Missouri. Fred credited his longevity to bee pollen and honey he ate each day, along with the occasional nip of whiskey.

9. Julie Winnefred Bertrand

16 Sep 1891 – 18 Jan 2007 (115 years, 4 mos, 2 days)

Coaticook, Quebec, Canada

As of 2004, when she turned 113, Bertrand was reported as being in fairly good health, dressing daily, had her hair done bi-weekly, and enjoyed a glass of wine on special occasions. Her memory was quite good, and she could recognize most of her friends and relatives. Her nephew described her as "tough, feisty and self-sufficient."

10. Emma Fanchon (Faust) Tillman

22 Nov 1892 – 28 Jan 2007 (114 years, 2 mos, 6 days)

Gibsonville, North Carolina

Emma, an African American, was born in Gibsonville, North Carolina to former slaves on the Faust Plantation. Emma was one of 23 children, some of whom died at birth or in their early years. But four of Emma's siblings lived past 100, including a sister, Ava, who died at 102 in 1983, and a brother, Eugene, who died at 108 in 1996. Another sister died at 105 in 2005, and another one at 102 in the 1980s. Tillman is featured in the church's 2005-2006 Pictorial Journal. She is described as a sharp witted, energetic woman who never minced words. When asked about the secret of her longevity, Tillman replied, "If you enjoy doing the things you do and do the things you enjoy, that's a good life!"

11. Yone Minagawa ( 皆川 ヨ子 )

4 Jan 1893 – 13 Aug 2007 (114 years, 7 mos, 9 days)

Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

She married, had five children and was widowed at an early age. She supported her family by selling vegetables and flowers that she cultivated at home., Minagawa attributed her long life to sensible eating and plenty of sleep.

12. John Evans

19 Aug 1877 - 10 Jun 1990 (112 years, 9 mos, 22 days)

United Kingdom

He had been a Welsh miner, and became the oldest man in the United Kingdom ever when he broke the record of England's John Mosely Turner. At the grand old age of 108, Evans was fitted with a pacemaker. When asked by interviewers for the secret of his long life, he replied, "No smoking, no drinking and no cursing".

13. Susie (Potts) Gibson

31 Oct 1890 - 16 Feb 2006 (115 years, 3 mos, 16 days)

Corinth, Mississippi

Susie was in remarkable shape, able to be interviewed by NBC and others and still mentally fit until her final months. Unlike those confined to a nursing home, Susie went out to eat at O'Charley's restaurant regularly, even up to age 115. Susie lived on her own until age 104, when she moved into a nursing home in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Ten years later, aged 114, she was one of the world's oldest people. In November 2004, Susie was interviewed, at age 114, and was able to talk more than an hour, remembering such things as the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, or that horse-drawn carriages would get stuck in the mud. Susie also recalled finding minié balls along the creeks near the battle of Shiloh.
Asked the secret to a long life, Gibson recommended frequent doses of vinegar. She put it on turnip greens and nearly everything else, Paetz said. She also advised eating pickles. Paetz, however, said Gibson's longevity had to do with her basic rule about spending time. "My grandmother put things in two pots: what she had to do and what she wanted to do," Paetz said. "Most of the time, what she wanted to do took priority. As a result she was happy. (link)

14. Maud Davis Farris-Luse

21 Jan 1887 - 18 Mar 2002 (115 years, 1 mos, 25 days)

Morley, Michigan

She was 16 years old when, with her mother's permission, she married Jason Ferris, who worked in the livery stable of a hotel, in 1903. That was also the year she first saw an automobile. She outlived six of her seven children. When police caught some kids who broke into her house and stole money, Maud refused to press charges. "She said 'they probably needed it more than she did,'" said Donald Ferris, a 64-year-old salesman. Maud never smoked or drank, but she has one vice: Fishing. She would drop anything to fish. Great-grand-daughter Cindy Coliver of Jackson remembers being taken aback to see Maud scaling bluegills in her living room. Home remedies were another eccentricity. Maud often was yellow from mustard rubs. Don't laugh. The woman never spent a day in a hospital until age 95. Mustard and bluegills cannot be all bad.

15. Antonio Todde

22 Jan 1889 – 3 Jan 2002 (112 years, 11 mos, 12 days)

Tiana, Nuoro province of Sardinia, Italy

Nuoro is noted for its remarkable centenarian density. Among the extremely small number of people who reach supercentenarian age worldwide, males are a pronounced minority, but at the end of his life Todde was not even the only male supercentenarian in Nuoro. His father lived to be 90, his mother was denied her centenary when she was poisoned by a rotten cheese at 99, and another sister was still going strong at 97 at the time of his passing. Todde's diet was based on pasta and soup. He had some pork or lamb each day and a glass-and-a-half of red wine. In the mornings he crossed himself before washing and splashing on a little aftershave. The local priest gave him holy communion once a month.

16. Hendrikje "Henny" van Andel-Schipper

29 Jun 1890 - 30 Aug 2005 (115 years, 2 mos, 1 days)

Smilde, Netherlands

She was born in Smilde, a small village in Drenthe, Netherlands. The supercentenarian to be lived with her parents until she was 47 years old. At the age of 46, she met her husband Dick van Andel, who worked in Amsterdam. She left her parents' home at the age of 47 and married Dick van Andel, a tax inspector, at the age of 49 in 1939. Though she's watched how cars have changed the world, she never learned to drive herself, instead remaining loyal to her bicycle — which helped her stay fit. "People keep asking me how I have managed to reach this age and still be healthy," she recently told the newspaper Hoogeveensche Courant. "The answer is, I have never smoked or drunk too much alcohol. I eat well and just keep breathing." Before moving to the [retirement] home, Van Andel-Schipper lived alone and made sure her diet was right. "She was a good cook," Beijering says, "and would take the time and effort to prepare healthy meals. She's very partial to the traditional Dutch raw herring." "Her standard reply whenever anything goes wrong is, 'There's no point in moaning,'" says Beijering. "She's a great believer in the power of positive thinking."

17. Emiliano Mercado del Toro

21 Aug 1891 - 24 Jan 2007 (115 years, 5 mos, 3 days)

Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico

He credited his longevity to funche, a boiled corn, codfish and milk cream-like dish which he ate every day as a habit. Mercado also claimed that his sense of humor was probably responsible for his long life, and he would tell jokes and humorous anecdotes almost to the end of his days.

18. Moses Hardy

6 Jan 1893 – 7 Dec 2006 (113 years, 11 mos, 1 days)

Aberdeen, Mississippi

His parents were freed slaves. Hardy served for one year (from July 1918 to July 1919) in France with the 805th Pioneer Infantry during the war, and spent 39 days in combat. He returned to his hometown of Aberdeen after the war, where he farmed, drove a school bus and sold cosmetics. Evelyn Davis, 68, one of Hardy's eight children, said she would remember her father's "very calm and peaceful personality.

19. Tomoji Tanabe ( 田鍋友時 )

18 Sep 1895 - alive

Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan

He worked as a civil engineer at the city office. Tanabe says total abstinence from alcohol is the secret to his longevity. On his 112th birthday, Tanabe stated that: "I want to live forever. I don't want to die," as he received 100,000 yen ($870) and flowers from the local mayor...Tanabe is "extremely healthy." Tanabe eats vegetables and does not drink alcohol, just daily milk.

20. Leona Tuttle

13 Apr 1896 - alive

Wadsworth, Michigan

(May 11, 2006 interview, Naples Daily News) About her childhood: Their meals were modest. Breakfast usually consisted of corn mush. Lunch was a piece of buttered bread and dinner: potatoes, scrambled eggs and a dill pickle. But one winter was so bad the family had nothing to eat but corn mush all winter.
Her 76-year-old daughter, Marjorie Casey, who lives with her, talks about how her mother never sat at home. She was always doing something. Even today, Casey says, her mother helps do the dishes, folds clothes, and sweeps the porch. “My Dad used to call her ‘Up and doing’ ‘cause she was constantly busy,” Casey says.
Tuttle still drinks coffee three times a day and takes Shaklee vitamins every morning with a powdered protein drink sprinkled on her cereal. She takes a 30-minute nap after lunch and in the evenings, she watches a little TV. “Lawrence Welk,” when it’s on.
“General exercises for lower extremities,” she says, reading from a sheet of paper illustrating the exercises she does every day after meals. Silently, she begins lifting her legs, one at a time, like the person in the pictures, unable to sit still any longer while her daughter pores through scrapbooks.

21. Edna Scott Parker

20 Apr 1893 - alive

Johnson County, Indiana

Parker was born on a farm in Johnson County, Indiana, and raised eating a typical farm diet of meat and starch. She is still in good health and able to walk. She enjoys reading and reciting poetry, especially the works of James Whitcomb Riley.

22. Leila Daughtry Denmark

1 Feb 1898 - alive

 Bulloch County, Georgia

At age 102,  Dr. Leila Daughtry Denmark  is the oldest known practicing doctor in America.  A Pediatrician!! She graduated from Tift College in 1922 and was the third female to graduate from he Medical College of Georgia in 1928. She still puts in 10- and 12-hour days, four days a week and charges $10 a consultation. Dr Denmark keeps her office in a 120-year-old log cabin in her rural home, 30 miles  north of Atlanta, in Alpharetta, and she still uses the same wooden examining-table she  began with 70 years ago.
She still hikes the mountains, walks several miles each afternoon, and plays golf: "I play 18 holes mind you, not just 9 holes."
Dr Denmark drinks no liquids at all  except water. She would not eat a bite of her 100th birthday cake - "too much sugar." She  says that she has not knowingly eaten sugar in 65 years.
Sunday is the Lord's Day, and for more than 65 years she has been a member of Druid  Hills Baptist Church. Her husband John was vice-president of the Federal Reserve Bank  in Atlanta and a deacon in Druid Hills for forty years. John died in 1991.
http://www.drdenmarksaidit.com/

23. Maggie Renfro

14 Nov 1894 - alive

Athens, Louisiana

She attributes her longevity to being "a good servant for God." "Love everybody; treat everybody right," she said. She said she didn't drink or smoke. It must be in the genes: Maggie has two sisters who are more than 100 years old. When asked what she attributed her longevity to, her sister Carrie Thornton, 105 year old, replied: "Live right and do right."

24. Russell Buchanan

24 Jan 1900 – 6 Dec 2006 (106 years, 10 mos, 12 days)

Cambridge, Massachusetts

As a young man, Mr. Buchanan hoped to join the Marines and play his trombone in its band, but he was turned down by them and tried the Navy. They turned him down because he weighed 115 pounds, three less than required. The Navy took him in 1918 and Mr. Buchanan served four years. In retirement, Mr. Buchanan led a quiet life. He had some hearing loss but kept in good shape by walking and doing daily calisthenics. He was still driving at 101. Around his 105th birthday in January, he took part in his sixth annual walkathon at the Arsenal Mall in Watertown to raise funds for homeless veterans. He walked for about a mile inside the mall, pushing a shopping cart to maintain his balance.

25. John Russell Coffey

1 Sep 1898 – alive

Tiro, Ohio

In the early 1920s, he played semi-pro baseball in Akron. It's not clear what team he played for, but the most likely is the Akron Numatics, whose roster included Jim Thorpe. He and his daughter attribute his longevity to good living -- a healthy diet, exercise, and the fact that he smoked only for a short time and avoided alcohol. Betty Jo Larsen says doctors told her that her father has the heart of a 60-year-old. The only pills he takes are to help him sleep at night. Otherwise, he wakes up and wants to get busy.

26. Antonio Pierro

22 (or 15) Feb 1896 – 28 Feb 2007 (111 years, 0 mos, 6 days)

Forenza, Italy

Pierro emigrated to the United States in 1914, and lived in Marblehead and Swampscott, Massachusetts. He died just a few weeks shy of his 111th birthday, where he lived with his 98-year old brother. "He was an old-fashioned sweetheart, a real nice, gentle soul who always enjoyed a smile," said Rick Pierro , a nephew, who looked after him when they lived together for much of the past decade in Swampscott. "He liked to give compliments to make people happy. He was a perfectionist who adhered to three square meals a day and always greeted women with a kiss to the hand."
Pierro explains his longevity in one word -- genetics. His parents lived to 90 and 91, and one of his grandfathers made it to 103. Three brothers lived past 80, and his youngest brother, Nicholas, turns 97 in April.  Besides good genes, Pierro said a strong will to live and common sense have kept him healthy all his life. Pierro spends much of his time thinking about the decisions he made, and he has concluded that life is a struggle between good and evil. Although he sleeps at least 16 hours a day, Pierro also stays active. He shovels snow, rakes leaves, and washes the dishes after every meal. ''If you don't have exercise, you get stiff, you're not worth anything," said Pierro, who often reads medical journals and the Bible.
Despite having eaten eggs, bacon, and red meat for at least 70 years and smoking until he was 60, Pierro has a normal cholesterol level and blood pressure. He takes no daily medication -- just a multivitamin. As a young adult, he began the practice of covering every scratch or bruise with a swab of iodine. And instead of gargling with Listerine, he took to drinking it every morning in the belief that it would make him healthier.
Pierro retired in 1961 and expanded his backyard garden, growing romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. In 1984, 17 years after his wife died, he sold his house to another nephew, Robert Pierro, although he continued to live there until 1996. Nearing 100, Pierro kept up his regimen of chopping wood and doing yard work. When he hit the century mark, Rick invited him to move into his house.
Since moving in with his brother and nephew, Pierro has slightly modified his diet. He now eats eggs for breakfast once a week, has a turkey sandwich for lunch, and meat, chicken, or fish for dinner. Still, he eats chocolate and cupcakes regularly and can eat up to three muffins in one sitting.
He believes in God, and said honesty and hard work could extend one's life.

27. Ernest Charles Pusey

5 May 1895 – 19 Nov 2006 (111 years, 6 mos, 14 days)

Washington, D.C.

He joined the Navy in 1917 and spent much of the war patrolling the sea lanes around the British Isles. He worked for General Motors in Flint, Mich., before moving to Florida in 1960. He tried living in a nursing home but preferred living in his trailer with the help of a caretaker. He loved fishing and going out for a scallop dinner on Sundays, his family said. Mr. Pusey's energy caught the attention of neighbors who often saw him taking a stroll around the park.

28. Harry Richard Landis

22 Dec 1899 – alive

Miller Township, near Hannibal and Palmyra, Missouri

He joined the army in October 1918, but served his time in Missouri. Though he did not complete basic training (due to the war ending less than a month later), his experience of mopping the floor at an army hospital included exposure to the Spanish flu, which was actually the leading cause of death worldwide in the year 1918, killing about 75 million people, but he survived.
"At age 8, I would wake at 5 a.m. to help my father round up and milk the cows, all before having breakfast," he said in the story printed in a Florida publication. "I would then go to school early to a one-room schoolhouse to make sure the room was heated before the other students arrived." After being honorably discharged, he returned to college to earn a degree, then taught high school math and physics.
Attributing his longevity to good health, Landis said, "I've always had a good resistance to diseases, even as a child. My brothers and sisters would be sick, but I wouldn't. I sure have been lucky and very fortunate."
He only takes one pill a day - his daily vitamin and eye drops for cataracts, according to Donna Riley, his home health care provider. Except for difficulty buttoning his shirt due to arthritis, he is able to take care of himself. Smiles and laughter come easily for Landis.

29. Onie Ponder

3 Sep 1898 – alive

Ocala, Marion Co., Florida

Centenarian Edna McFadgen recently met 109 year old Onie Ponder at her Village of Rio Ranchero home. Edna wanted to know Onie’s secrets for longevity. “You’re 109? That’s a long time,” the 102-year-old said to her new friend, who is seven years older. “How do you get to be 109?” “110? Oh, I’ll never make it that long,” Edna said. “Oh, yes you will,” Onie said. “You have to be determined.” Onie credits her longevity to her optimism, and being born to parents with good genes. “I had to walk until I was 18 because we didn’t have a horse and buggy,” Onie said. “So I had to walk everywhere and I strengthened my limbs, and they were the ones that took me around. …Some days now I feel pretty old,” she admitted, “but times when I’m enjoying myself, like I am now, I feel like I might still be in my 80s.”

30. Emma Murrell

? 1898 – alive

England

A resident at Hunstanton’s Lincoln Lodge residential home, Mrs. Murrell is less than two years younger than the oldest person in Britain – Florrie Baldwin, of Leeds, who is due to celebrate her 111th birthday in February.
Mrs. Murrell continues to put her long life down to good genes – her father lived to 92 and his mother was 103 when she died. She said: “I’m always asked my secret. Firstly it’s good genes, a little tot of whisky each day in my tea, eating and drinking in moderation, no smoking and I lived in the country when I was growing up.”

31. Catherine Hagel

28 November 1894 – alive

Minnesota

John Dahlheimer shook his head when he first saw his newborn daughter Catherine. “That scrawny baby will never make it,” he prophesied.The year was 1894.Today, his daughter — Catherine Hagel of New Hope — is 112 years old. “She made her own soap most of her life,” says Cecilia Gulczinski, 88, one of Hagel’s 11 children. “She canned 400 jars of fruits and vegetables every summer, and sewed all our clothes — never used a pattern. She could do anything with a piece of material.”
What’s the secret of Hagel’s long and fruitful life? She credits hard work — a surprising prescription for an era like ours when we increasingly make comfort our goal. But she also took a quiet hour each day to immerse herself in the newspaper and enjoy her favorite section, the funny pages and “Little Orphan Annie.”
Finally, Hagel credits her religious faith. As I prepared to leave the nursing home after our interview, she sat with her daughter and granddaughter and together they prayed the guardian angel prayer she had learned as a girl: “Ever this day, be at my side - to light, to guard, to rule and guide.”