Mamie Eva Keith

Mamie Eva Walter Keith (March 22, 1873 – September 20, 1986) was an American supercentenarian and the oldest recognized person in the world from February 21, 1986 until her death seven months later in the Winchester House nursing home, Libertyville, Illinois. Keith was a teacher in an elementary school in Anna, Illinois, where she was also born.

Keith, who lived in Illinois,[2] succeeded the now disputed Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan, and was included in the Guinness Book of Records 1987 edition. She became the world's oldest living woman in December 1985, when 113-year-old Ollie Bay died in Illinois. Keith was the last person to become 'world's oldest' at a mere 112 years of age, having been a month shy of 113 in February 1986. Despite claims of other people being older, 23 years of research have so far failed to identify anyone older (for the February 1986 – September 1986 period) whose age can be verified. She lived for 113 years 182 days.

Keith's father was a veteran of the American Civil War, where he served under Gen. William T. Sherman. Keith is said to have remembered hearing the news of Custer's Last Stand, a battle fought when she was three years old.[1]