Hattie Lafayette

Hattie Lee Lafayette (née Caldwell; 30 March 1897 – 10 September 2009) was an American supercentenarian whose age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group.

Biography
Lafayette was born on 30 March 1897 in Calhoun, Alabama, one of 21 children. She recalls that her father would sometimes take her to Montgomery, Alabama in his wagon, and would sometimes have to cover her eyes because there was a lynched black man hanging from a tree.

During her youth, Lafayette had jobs as a dish washer, a cotton picker, and child carer. She married L.C. Lafayette in 1917, with whom she had two children. Her husband died in 1950, and both of her children predeceased her.

Lafayette moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1956, where she worked as a nurse at Herman Keifer Hospital. She retired from this job and moved back to Alabama to care for her brother, who had cancer. She subsequently returned to Michigan. In 1964, she was ordained as a deaconess at Lewis Chapel A.M.E. in Albion, Michigan.

Lafayette died in Marshall, Michigan, on 10 September 2009 at the age of 112 years, 164 days. She had been hospitalised two weeks earlier with a bout of shingles. At the time of her death, she had five grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren, 88 great-great grandchildren, 59 great-great-great-grandchildren, and two great-great-great-great-grandchildren.