Jeanne Calment

Jeanne Louise Calment (21 February 1875-4 August 1997) was a French supercentenarian who currently has the longest verified human lifespan in the history,she lived to 122 years and 164 days.She resided in Arles for her entire life,she outlived her daugher and grandson by serval decades.Calment was added to the Guinnes World Record Books in 1988 after the death of 114 years old Florence Knapp.However,a American woman called Carrie C. White was verified to be born in 1874,so Jeanne Calment lost the title,but researchs revealed that Carrie C. White was only 102 at death and White had never held the record.She still remains the only undisputedly verified person to reach 120 or more.

Early and Personal Life
Jeanne Louise Calment was born in Febraury 1875 in Arles,France to Nicholas Calment (28 January 1838-22 January 1931) a ship builder and Marguerite Gills (20 February 1838 – 18 September 1924) who was born to a family of millers.Some of her close family member also lived to old above-average ages,her older brother François lived to the 97, her father Nicholas lived to six days shy of 93, and her mother Marguerite lived to 86.According to her,she met Vincent Van Gogh in 1888 when he came to her uncle's shop to buy some paints.She described him to be "Dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable".

At the age of 21 in 1896,she married her double second cousin,Fernand Nicolas Calment,who was a wealthy store owner.Their paternal grandfathers were brothers,they had the same surname, and their paternal grandmothers were also sisters. His wealth made it possible for Calment never to have to work and lead a leisured lifestyle, pursuing hobbies such as tennis,cycling,swimming,rollerskating,piano and opera.They had one daughter called Yvonne Marie Nicolle Calment (1898–1934), had a son and gave Jeanne a grandson, Frédéric Billiot, in 1926.Yvonne died at 36 due to Pnuemonia,after her death,Calment raised and took care of Frederic herself.Frederic became a doctor,Frederic died in 1962 from a Automobile accident. Fernand died in 1942 aged about 74 after eating a dessert prepared with spoiled cherries.In 1965,she was 90 and still didn't had a hier,so Calment signed a deal to sell her former apartment to lawyer André-François Raffray, on a contingency contract. Raffray, then aged 47 years, agreed to pay her a monthly sum of 2,500 francs until she died. Raffray ended up paying Calment the equivalent of more then 180,000 dollars.After Raffray died in 1995 at 77,his widow payed Jeanne until Calment herself died.

Recognition
In 1985, Calment moved into a nursing home, having lived on her own until age 110.[2]  Her international fame escalated in 1988, when the centenary of Vincent van Gogh's visit to Arles provided an occasion to meet reporters. She said at the time that she had met Van Gogh 100 years before, in 1888, as a thirteen-year-old girl in her uncle's fabric shop, where he wanted to buy some paints and canvas, later describing him as "dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable", and "very ugly, ungracious, impolite, sick". Calment recalled selling coloured pencils to Van Gogh, and seeing the Eiffel Tower being built. At the age of 114, she appeared briefly in the 1990 film Vincent and Me as herself, making her the oldest person ever to appear in a motion picture.A documentary film about her life, entitled "Beyond 120 Years with Jeanne Calment", was released in 1995.In 1996, Time's Mistress, a four-track CD of Calment speaking over a background of rap, was released.On her 122nd birthday on 21 February 1997, it was announced that she would make no more public appearances, as her health had seriously started to decline. She died on 4 August of that same year both before and after Calment's death, there have been several claims to have surpassed her age, but Calment is still recognized as the oldest person ever. Death On August 4, 1997, at 22:45 Central European Time, Calment died, aged 122. of Natural Causes After her death, then 116-year-old Canadian Marie-Louise Meilleur (1880-1998) became the oldest recognized living person.