Oldest living American, Mamie Rearden, dies at 114

Mamie Rearden, who was the oldest living American, has died at age 114.

The Edgefield, South Carolina, woman died on Wednesday at a hospital in Georgia, The Associated Press reported.

Sara Rearden told the AP that her mother fell about three weeks ago and broke her hip.

Mamie Rearden held the title of oldest living American for only about a month after Iowa’s Dina Manfredini died at 115.

Jiroemon Kimura of Japan is the world’s oldest living person at 115.

Rearden was born on Sept. 7, 1898 in Edgefield County, South Carolina.

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After becoming a teacher in 1918, she married the next year and had 11 children. Her husband, Ocay, died in 1979; the couple had been married 59 years.

When she turned 109, she told The Augusta Chronicle that living a spiritual life is important.

“You live the best you can – in the Lord’s name,” she said in a 2008 article.

Two years ago Rearden became the oldest living African American, and that left her at a loss.

“I don’t know how it makes me feel,” she said then. “I really don’t know.”

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