Augusta Holtz

Augusta Louise Holtz (née Hoppe)[citation needed] (3 August 1871 – 21 October 1986) was the world's oldest person from the 16 February 1985 death of Mathew Beard to her own death on 21 October 1986, aged 115 years 79 days.

She was born in the Prussian Province of Posen of the German Empire, modern-day Poland, in 1871 to Michael Hoppe and Wilhemina Henrietta (Quade) Hoppe.[citation needed] According to her granddaughter, she lacked a birth certificate that would authenticate her claim and therefore was not listed by Guinness World Records. However her age was later verified by theGerontology Research Group in 2012, and she was posthumously recognised as the oldest verified person after the death of Mathew Beard on 16 February 1985. At the time of her death she was the oldest verified person ever up until that point and the first person known to have reached the age of 115. She moved to the U.S. at age 2 in 1873. Her father owned a farm near Troy, Illinois. She grew up with three siblings. She married Edward Holtz in 1900, who died in 1923. She had four children with him—two sons (Edward[citation needed] and Augustus[citation needed]) and two daughters (Hester and Gertrude). She later moved to St. Louis County, Missouri, where she died at the St. Sophia Geriatric Center in Florissant.