Who is Delphia Welford? It sounds like she’s from Pennsylvania, for sure. Even though she died in 1992, she is just now being added to the top 10 list. She was the 2nd oldest living person, behind Jeanne Calment for a couple of years. Now, she is the tenth longest-lived person, at 117 years, 66 days, living from September 9, 1875 to November 14, 1992.
Unlike most supercentenarians, Delphia has her own Wikipedia page in the Italian edition, from which I gathered much of the information I’m presenting here. Her page in English is in draft status, but you can still find it there. See the link in the show notes for this episode. She actually was not born in Philadelphia but in Okolona, Mississippi. As a child, she moved to Humbolt, Tennessee, where she is was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in an unmarked grave next to her son and daughter-in-law. She is American, and next to Sarah Knauss, she is the second longest-lived person from the United States. She is also the longest-lived African American from the United States.
Delphia had one son, Leo Mathis, who died in 1966 at the age of 70. She never married. So much for married people living longer! The notice of her death in the Jackson Sun newspaper said that her occupation was a homemaker.
Miss Welford was the subject of lengthy efforts to document her real age, lasting from 2016 until April of this year, conducted by the Gerontology Research Group.
Delphia Welford, as far as I can tell, was never interviewed. This is not surprising since she lived in a small town and was never on the top ten list, having just been documented this year, thirty-one years after her death. So, there is not much in the way of insights into how Delphia was able to live so long, except maybe that she lived in a small town, had a family, and was a homemaker.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphia_Welford
https://www.grg-supercentenarians.org/1875-2/
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/GKP3-NL4/delphia-s.-welford-1875-1992
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/255347614/delpha-s.-welford
Photo courtesy of Gerontology Research Group:
http://grg-supercentenarians.org