Opal Johnson

Opal Johnson (born 21 December 1909) is an American supercentenarian whose age is currently unvalidated by the Gerontology Research Group.

Biography
In 1928, at the age of 18, Johnson began teaching in the one-room Whitefish School in Pine River, Minnesota. She taught eight grades, and had to deal with students who had illnesses such as typhoid fever and scarlet fever. She worked there for two years before leaving in 1930, going on to work in a school in nearby Mildred.

Johnson went on to earn a two-year elementary diploma from Moorhead State Teachers' College, and then took a supervisory teaching position at a school in Averill, Minnesota. While in Averill, Johnson wrote that she developed a new way of teaching students with learning disabilities, where she used topics familiar to the students, such as agriculture or trucking, to help them learn. She also taught in Moorhead, Minnesota and again in Pine River.

Johnson has lived in an assisted living facility since she was around 100. She reportedly suffers from dementia, and is hard of hearing. In February 2017, at the age of 107, Johnson was reunited with one of her former students, Irene Olson (then aged 96), when Olson visited her living facility. Johnson celebrated her 110th birthday in December 2019.