Goldie Michelson

Goldie Michelson
Goldie Michelson (right) at the age of 111.
Birth:	8 August 1902 Elizabethgrad, Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine)
Death:	8 July 2016 Massachusetts, USA
Age:	113 years, 335 days
Country:	UKRUSA
Validated

Goldie B. Michelson (née Corash) (8 August 1902 – 8 July 2016) was a validated Russian-American supercentenarian, who was the oldest living American resident from the death of Susannah Mushatt Jones on 12 May 2016 until her own death eight weeks later. She was also the oldest living Jewish person in the world.^[1]

Life

Michelson was born in Elizabethgrad, Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine) on 8 August 1902. Her father, Max Corash, was a medical student in Russia. She moved to the United States at the age of two. They lived in Worcester where her father started a dry goods business.

She went to the classical high-school and later went to college at Women's College of Brown University in 1924 and was a sociology major. Soon after graduating, she met David Michelson, and the couple had a daughter, Renee, born in 1931 and lived with Goldie's parents but then moved to Carlisle Street. David worked as a building contractor.

She completed her master's degree in sociology at Clark University in 1936. She, along with her husband, ran a theater in her cellar room. They frequently travelled. David died in 1974.^[2]

Goldie Michelson was validated by the Gerontology Research Group on 25 July 2015. Following the death of Susannah Mushatt Jones, Goldie Michelson was recognised as the oldest living person in the United States.^[3] However, she was not the oldest living American citizen. Marie-Josephine Gaudette, born in 1902, lived in Italy but retained American citizenship (even voting for Obama in 2008).

Michelson died on 8 July 2016 at the age of 113 years, 335 days.

Records

Goldie Michelson currently holds the following major longevity records:

• The oldest validated person born in present-day Ukraine.
• The second oldest validated person born in the historical Russian Empire.
• Previously the oldest validated living American resident ^[3]
• Previously the oldest validated living Jewish person

References

• Gerontology Research Group

United States' Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • E)

Clarida Roy • Mary Bittlebrun • Sophia DeMuth • Fannie Thomas • Nellie Spencer • Emma Wilson • Mathew Beard • Augusta Holtz • Mary McKinney • Florence Knapp • Lucy Hannah • Margaret Skeete • Wilhelmina Kott • Sarah Knauss • Myrtle Dorsey • Maud Farris-Luse • Grace Clawson • Adelina Domingues • Mae Harrington • Mary Christian • Elena Slough • Charlotte Benkner • Emma Verona Johnston • Elizabeth Bolden • Emma Tillman • Corinne Dixon Taylor • Edna Parker • Gertrude Baines • Mary Josephine Ray • Neva Morris • Eunice Sanborn • Besse Cooper • Dina Manfredini • Gertrude Weaver • Jeralean Talley • Susannah Mushatt Jones • Goldie Michelson • Adele Dunlap • Delphine Gibson • Lessie Brown • Alelia Murphy • Hester Ford