Carrie White, 116; Listed as World’s Oldest Person
Carrie White, named in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest person, has died. She was 116.
Mrs. White, who died Thursday, was born in 1874 when Ulysses S. Grant was President and Gen. George Armstrong Custer was still two years away from his last stand.
“Everyone at Guinness was saddened to hear of her death. Her picture was in this year’s edition,” said Mark Young, editor of the book’s American edition.
Putnam Memorial Nursing Home, where she lived for five years, held birthday parties for Mrs. White each of the past three years. She received a telephone call from former President Reagan on her birthday last year.
Mrs. White spent 75 years at Florida State Hospital at Chattahoochee.
Her husband, John White, admitted her one day after her 35th birthday. Hospital records say she suffered from “post-typhoid psychosis,” but doctors now are not certain of that diagnosis.
She was released from the hospital when she was 109 as part of a program to move geriatric mental patients from state institutions.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
