Jeanne Calment facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jeanne Calment
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Calment at age 40 in 1915
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| Born |
Jeanne Louise Calment
21 February 1875 |
| Died | 4 August 1997 (aged 122 years, 164 days) Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
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| Known for |
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| Spouse(s) |
Fernand Calment
(m. 1896; died 1942) |
| Children | 1: Yvonne (1898–1934) |
Jeanne Louise Calment (born 21 February 1875 – died 4 August 1997) was a French woman who lived for an amazing 122 years and 164 days. This makes her the oldest person ever verified to have lived. Her incredibly long life caught the attention of many people, including doctors and scientists. They wanted to study her health and how she lived. She is the only person confirmed to have reached the age of 120.
Records show that Jeanne lived longer than both her daughter and her grandson. In 1988, she became known as the oldest living person in the world. Then, in 1995, at the age of 120, she was officially declared the oldest person who had ever lived.
Contents
Early Life in Arles
Jeanne Calment was born on 21 February 1875 in Arles, a town in Provence, France. Her family members also lived for a long time. Her older brother, François, lived to be 97. Her father, Nicolas, a shipbuilder, lived to 93. Her mother, Marguerite Gilles, lived to 86.
From age seven until her first Communion, Jeanne went to Mrs. Benet's church primary school in Arles. After that, she attended a local secondary school. She finished school at 16 with a diploma called the brevet classique. When asked about her school days, she said she would wake up at eight o'clock. For breakfast, she had coffee with milk or hot chocolate. Her father would pick her up for lunch, and then she would return to school. After school, she lived with her parents, waiting to get married. She spent her time painting and practicing the piano.
Jeanne's Personal Life
On 8 April 1896, when she was 21, Jeanne married her second cousin, Fernand Nicolas Calment. Their grandfathers were brothers, and their grandmothers were sisters. Fernand had started trying to win her over when she was 15. But she said she was "too young to be interested in boys" back then.
Fernand inherited a fabric shop in the center of Arles. The couple moved into a large apartment above the store. Jeanne had servants and never had to work. She enjoyed a relaxed life among the wealthy people of Arles. She had many hobbies like fencing, cycling, tennis, swimming, and rollerskating. She also loved playing the piano and making music with friends. In the summer, they would go to Uriage for mountaineering. They also hunted rabbits and wild boars in the hills of Provence.
Jeanne and Fernand had one child, a daughter named Yvonne Marie Nicolle Calment. Yvonne was born on 19 January 1898. Yvonne later married an army officer, Joseph Billot, in 1926. Their only son, Frédéric, was born in December of the same year. When World War I started, Fernand was 46. He was considered too old to join the military.
Yvonne Calment passed away from pleurisy on 19 January 1934, which was her 36th birthday. After Yvonne's death, Jeanne helped raise her grandson, Frédéric. He lived with his father in a nearby apartment. World War II did not affect Jeanne's life much. She said German soldiers slept in her rooms but "did not take anything away." In 1942, her husband Fernand died at age 73.
By 1954, Jeanne was still living in the same apartment with her son-in-law, Joseph Billot. Her grandson Frédéric lived next door with his wife. Jeanne's brother François died in 1962 at 97. Her son-in-law Joseph died in January 1963. Sadly, her grandson Frédéric died in a car accident in August of the same year.
In 1965, when she was 90 and had no family left, Jeanne made a special agreement. She sold her apartment to a lawyer named André-François Raffray. In return, she could live there for the rest of her life and receive a monthly payment. Raffray died in 1995, but by then, Jeanne had received more than double the apartment's value from him. His family had to keep making payments to her. Jeanne joked about it, saying, "in life, one sometimes makes bad deals." In 1985, she moved into a nursing home. She had lived on her own until she was 110. A film about her life, Beyond 120 Years with Jeanne Calment, was released in 1995. In 1996, a CD called Time's Mistress was released. It featured Jeanne speaking over music, including rap.
The Oldest Verified Person
Longevity Records
In 1986, Jeanne Calment became the oldest living person in France at 111 years old. She became more famous during the 100th anniversary of Vincent van Gogh's time in Arles. Van Gogh lived there from 1888 to 1889, when Jeanne was 13–14 years old. Jeanne told reporters that she had met van Gogh. Her future husband introduced them in her uncle's fabric shop. She remembered that van Gogh looked at her in a way that made her feel he was not impressed. She described him as having an "ugly" and "very disagreeable" personality.
Guinness World Records recognized her as the world's oldest living person when she was 112. She briefly lost this title in 1990 to Carrie C. White from the United States. White claimed to be born in 1874. However, White's claim was later found to be incorrect. After White's death in 1991, Jeanne Calment regained the title of the world's oldest living person. When she was 114, she appeared briefly in the 1990 movie Vincent and Me. She walked outside and answered questions.
Her fame grew even more when Guinness named her the oldest person ever on 17 October 1995. Jeanne Calment's lifespan is much longer than any other verified human life. She is known as the best-documented supercentenarian (someone over 110 years old). For example, she was listed in fourteen census records, starting in 1876 when she was one year old. After Jeanne's death, a Canadian woman named Marie-Louise Meilleur, who was almost 117, became the oldest verified living person. Some people have claimed to be older than Jeanne, but none have been proven. For about thirty years, Jeanne Calment has held the record as the oldest human whose age has been officially confirmed.
Health and Lifestyle
Jeanne Calment's good health helped her achieve her record-breaking age. On television, she said, "I have never been ill, never ever." When she was 20, doctors found early signs of cataracts after she had a bad case of conjunctivitis (pink eye). She married at 21, and her husband's money meant she did not have to work. All her life, she took care of her skin with olive oil and powder. In her youth, she sometimes suffered from migraines. Her husband introduced her to smoking, offering her cigarettes after meals. She only smoked after meals. Jeanne continued smoking until she was 117 years old. When she was older, she broke her ankle, but before that, she had never had any major injuries. She continued cycling until her 100th birthday. Around age 100, she fractured her leg, but she recovered quickly and could walk again.
After her brother, son-in-law, and grandson died in 1962–63, Jeanne Calment had no close family left. She lived on her own from age 88 until just before her 110th birthday. Then, she decided to move to a nursing home. She moved because the water pipes in her house froze during the winter of 1985. She never used heating in the winter, and her hands got frostbite.
Daily Routine
After moving into the Maison du Lac nursing home in January 1985, when she was almost 110, Jeanne Calment followed a very strict daily routine. She asked to be woken up at 6:45 a.m. She started her day with a long prayer at her window, thanking God for being alive. Sometimes she would loudly ask why she had lived so long and why she was the only one left in her family. Sitting in her armchair, she did exercises while wearing her stereo headset. Her exercises included bending and straightening her hands, then her legs. Nurses noticed she moved faster than other residents who were 30 years younger. Her breakfast was coffee with milk and rusks (a type of hard biscuit).
She washed herself without help using a cloth, not a shower. She put soap, then olive oil and powder on her face. She washed her own glass and cutlery before lunch. She liked daube (braised beef stew) but did not like boiled fish. She had dessert with every meal. She said if she had a choice, she would eat fried and spicy foods instead of the plain foods on the menu. She made herself daily fruit salads with bananas and oranges. She loved chocolate, sometimes eating a kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) per week. After her meal, she smoked a cigarette and drank a small amount of port wine. In the afternoon, she would take a two-hour nap in her armchair. Then, she would visit her neighbors in the care home, telling them the latest news from the radio. At night, she would eat dinner quickly, return to her room, and listen to music. Her poor eyesight kept her from doing crosswords. She would smoke a last cigarette and go to bed at 10:00 p.m. On Sundays, she went to Mass. On Fridays, she went to Vespers (evening prayers). She often prayed and asked God for help, and she wondered about what happens after life.
Medical Check-ups
A medical student named Georges Garoyan wrote a paper about Jeanne Calment in January 1990, when she was 114. The first part described her daily routine, and the second part shared her medical history. She said she had been vaccinated as a child but could not remember which ones. Other than aspirin for migraines, she had never taken any medicine, not even herbal teas. She did not get German measles, chickenpox, or urinary infections. She also did not have high blood pressure or diabetes. In April 1986, at 111, she went to the hospital for heart failure and was treated with digoxin. Later, she had arthropathy (joint disease) in her ankles, elbows, and wrists. This was successfully treated with anti-inflammatory medicine. Her blood pressure was normal, and her pulse was 84 beats per minute. She was about 150 cm (4 ft 11 in) tall and weighed about 45 kg (99 lb). This was similar to her weight in previous years. She did well on mental tests, except for number tasks and remembering recent events.
Her blood tests were normal between ages 111 and 114. There were no signs of dehydration, anemia, long-term infection, or kidney problems. Genetic tests showed she had a specific gene called HLA-DR1, which is common in people who live to be over 100. A heart check-up showed her heart was slightly enlarged but working well. X-rays showed some bone thinning (osteoporosis) and early osteoarthritis in her right hip. An ultrasound showed no problems with her internal organs. At this point, Jeanne was still in good health and walked without a cane. She fell in January 1990 (when she was almost 115) and broke her femur (thigh bone). She needed surgery. After that, Jeanne used a wheelchair and stopped her daily routine.
When she was 115, researchers Jean-Marie Robine and Michel Allard became interested in Jeanne. They worked with her doctor, Victor Lèbre, to interview her, confirm her age, and find out what helped her live so long. Their study lasted a year. They found that Jeanne's eyesight was very poor due to bilateral cataracts (clouding in both eyes). But she refused a simple operation to fix it. She had a slightly weak heart, a cough, and occasional rheumatism (joint pain). However, her digestion was always good, she slept well, and she did not have bladder control issues. In her last years, she was about 137 cm (4 ft 6 in) tall and weighed 40 kg (88 lb). She said she had always been small and had lost weight recently. Her eyes were light grey, and her white hair had once been chestnut brown.
At 118, she had more brain tests and a CT scan. The tests showed that her memory for words and how easily she spoke were like people in their eighties and nineties with the same education. The parts of her brain that control planning and decision-making were still working well. There were no signs of a worsening brain disease, sadness, or other mental health problems. Her thinking skills even seemed to get a little better over six months. Jeanne Calment was said to have remained "mentally sharp" until the very end of her life.
Death
Jeanne Calment died on 4 August 1997, around 10:00 a.m. The cause of her death was not specified. The New York Times quoted researcher Robine as saying that she had been in good health, though almost blind and deaf, just a month before she passed away.
Images for kids
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Jeanne Calment at age 70 in 1945
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Jeanne's daughter, Yvonne Calment, in front of the Church of St. Trophime in Arles. The date is unknown. This photo was often wrongly labeled as Jeanne at age 22.
See also
In Spanish: Jeanne Calment para niños
- Jiroemon Kimura (1897–2013), the oldest man whose age was verified
- List of the verified oldest people
- Maximum life span
- Lists of oldest people
