Maude Farris-Luse

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Maude Farris-Luse (née Davis; January 21, 1887 – March 18, 2002), later known as Maud Luse, was an American supercentenarian who was recognized as the oldest living person in the world from June 2001 until her death nine months later, at age 115 years, 25 days.

Farris-Luse was thought to have been born on January 21, 1887, until subsequent research from LongeviQuest claimed a February 21, 1887 date of birth.^[1]

Maude Farris was born in Morley, Michigan on February 21, 1887. She married Jason Farris, a farmer and laborer, in 1903. She was 16; he was 23. They lived in Angola, Indiana initially, later moving to Coldwater, Michigan in 1923.

Luse had seven children, four sons and three daughters. She worked as a factory clerk, a hotel maid, a baker, and a restaurant cook, retiring in her 70s. Her husband, Jason Farris, died at age 72 in 1951. Her second marriage to Walter Luse lasted only three years, ending with his death in 1959.^[2]

Luse outlived all of her children with the exception of her youngest daughter, Lucille, who died a year after Luse's death. Luse also had 26 grandchildren, 85 great-grandchildren, and 65 great-great-grandchildren. She had a sister who lived to be 99.

In later years, Maude became known for her big garden, for making pot holders by the dozen, and for her extreme generosity. Maude never smoked or drank. She would drop anything to fish. Great-granddaughter Cindy Coliver of Jackson remembered being taken aback to see Maude scaling bluegills in her living room. Home remedies were another eccentricity. Maud often was yellow from mustard rubs. Farris-Luse never spent a day in a hospital until age 95.^[3]

In her later years she was known as Maud Luse, having changed it legally.

Maude had lived in a nursing home since falling at home in 1991 and breaking her hip, when she was 104. She was still very healthy, though, according to a staff member of the Coldwater Nursing Home.

In 1997, at the age of 110, Luse wrote a letter to Jeanne Calment, the oldest person whose age has ever been validated.^[4] Calment died that same year, at age 122. With the death of Marie Brémont on June 6, 2001, Guinness editors declared Luse the world's oldest person on June 23, 2001.^[5] In the absence of any birth certificate, they authenticated her age using U.S. Census Bureau records and her 1903 marriage license. On March 18, 2002, Luse died of pneumonia at 115,^[3] having outlived six of her seven children.

At the time of her death, she was the oldest person ever from Michigan, having surpassed the age of Mary Kelly (1851–1964), a record she held until Jeralean Talley surpassed it in 2014.

• List of the verified oldest people
• List of the verified oldest women
• 100 oldest American people ever
• Supercentenarian

• "World's Oldest Person Dies" CBS News