Welcome to the 8th in our series on centenarians. Lucy Hanna lived from 7/16/1865 to 3/21/1993 a total of 117 years, 248 days.
At her death, Hannah’s family claimed that she was 118, which was backed up by Social Security data at the time, but an investigation by the Social Security Administration’s “Kestenbaum” study in 2003 determined that her age at death was actually 117 years, 248 days.
She is #4 on the list of all-time longest-lived people, and the oldest ever African-American. She was never the oldest living person, because she was born 5 months after Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who outlived her by another four years.
Lucy is one of two Americans on the list, the U.S. being one of the largest countries in the world. She was born in Linden, Alabama and died in Detroit, Michigan. Lucy was African-American and may have left Alabama due to racial tension.
Her two sisters both lived to be 100, and her mother died at the age of 99. She married John Hannah in 1901 and they had eight children; only two of her children survived her.
Information about Lucy is sparse, mainly because she wasn’t known for her longevity during her lifetime, even though she was the second oldest living person.
What do we learn? Honestly, not much because of the lack of information. But but I am interested in this Kestenbaum study by the Social Security Administration. I have read it, and it is relatively short. The key point to our series is that, as part of the study, researchers checked birth and death certificates. The result of this is that some changes were made, like what happened in this case, Lucy Hannah’s final age was modified by a year.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people
https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/lucy-hannah.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58077207/lucy-hannah
https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Lucy_Hannah
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226113084_Supercentenarians_in_the_United_States
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