May 2023

It is with a heavy heart for LongeviQuest to announce the death of Slovakia’s oldest citizen, Gizela Dvončová at 106 years old.

Mrs. Gizela Dvončová was born on 7 December 1916, Partizanske, Trencin Region of Slovakia (known as Austria-Hungary at the time of her birth). She started devoting her whole life to folklore and theater at the young age of 16 years old as she deeply expresses her love for singing. Basically, singing to herself everywhere and anywhere plus having a good mood always, are the secrets for her longevity.

The oldest Slovak, Gizela Dvončová (pictured), died at the age of 106. Photo – TASR – Radovan Stoklasa

Mrs. Dvončová was very active when it came to her passion. It was shown when she took part in a singing competition when she was 99 years old. She was also strong willed as she participated in the Slovak parliamentary election in February 2020 when she was 103 years old. Mrs. Dvončová even stated that she understands politics very well since she was younger and that she always encouraged her family to also vote.

Mrs. Dvončová became the oldest known living person in Slovakia on 1 May 2022 when the 106-year-old Margita Bindasova passed away.

Mrs. Gizela Dvončová passed away on 28 May 2023 in the very place she was born, in Partizanske, Trencin Region, Slovakia. She was a centenarian whose age is not yet validated by LongeviQuest. It is not yet known who the new oldest living person in Slovakia is, but the title might be at the hands of Ilona Szekér, a 105-year-old centenarian from the city of Nitra.

LongeviQuest is extending our deepest condolences to the bereaved family and friends of Mrs. Gizela Dvončová.

The LongeviQuest Global Validation Commission has unanimously voted to uphold the human longevity record set by Madame Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.

Mme. Calment’s age validation had been challenged by Dr. Nikolay Zak and Dr. Philip Gibbs, who submitted a 31-page devalidation report to the Global Validation Commission. The two researchers later publicly released a summary of their evidence.

Mme. Calment’s status as a supercentenarian was first recognized in the late 1980s, and her validation was retroactively recognized upon the founding of LongeviQuest. The LongeviQuest Charter requires unanimous approval to retroactively devalidate a case, a threshold that had been met only once previously. In the Calment case, the Commission unanimously voted in the other direction, confirming Mme. Calment’s status as the human longevity recordholder.

Jeanne Calment
Source: Observatory of Demography

The Global Validation Commission is composed of age validation experts from Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Expressing the collective view of the group, one Commissioner explained, “Having reviewed the devalidation report for Jeanne Calment, we found that on balance the report was conjectural and selective in the evidence it presented. As a result, the research presented is considered insufficient for devalidation.”

LongeviQuest Chief Executive Ben Meyers, who is not a member of the Global Validation Commission, stated the following: “We have built into our process a high threshold to retroactively devalidate a recognized age claim, and this decision is an example of the process functioning as intended. I am pleased that the Commissioners evaluated the research submitted by Dr. Zak and Dr. Gibbs without preconceived biases. The Commissioners’ thorough analysis has further confirmed LongeviQuest’s recognition of Madame Calment’s extraordinary age. We thank Dr. Zak and Dr. Gibbs for submitting their research to the Commission. Should their research be supplemented by additional evidence in the future, they are welcome to contact us again. Factoring in all currently available evidence, LongeviQuest considers this matter settled.”

LongeviQuest is happy to announce the age validation of Take Abe at 112 years old. She was a Japanese supercentenarian believed to be the third-oldest living person in Japan just before her death in 1991.

Abe was born on 31 July 1879 in the village of Kitamatsuno which is later known as the city of Fuji in the present day.

She dropped out of Shizuoka Girls’ High School to marry a doctor from Ihara District and later had three children with him.

(Source: 日本百歳人名鑑)

Abe enjoys talking with the staff of the nursing home she was in every day, and it is said that she does not want to be interfered with while talking.

Take Abe passed away on 15 October 1991, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, when she was at the age of 112 years old. Abe was declared as the third-oldest person in Japan, behind Waka Shirahama and Tane Ikai just two months before her death.

For more information, please view Take Abe’s Directory Profile here.

Longeviquest is glad to announce the validation of Berta Gutierrez’s age claim of 110 years old. She is an American supercentenarian who is among the top 10 oldest residents of the state of California.

Gutierrez was born in El Paso, Texas, on 22 February 1913 while her parents are originally from Mexico. At some point in her life, she decided to move and be a resident of Hayward, California where she is still currently staying at.

On her 110th birthday in 2023.
(Source: Facebook/Mark Salinas)

Researchers knew about her when she was reported by a major news outlet after celebrating becoming a supercentenarian this year.

For more information, please view Berta Gutierrez’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is delighted to announce the age validation of Gisaburō Sonobe at 111 years old. He is a Japanese supercentenarian who is currently the oldest living man in the country.

Sonobe was born on 6 November 1911, and he currently lives in Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. He taught Japanese language and social studies at junior and senior high school students most of his life. This is why his former students are very fond of him to the point that they even arranged a class reunion to celebrate his 100^th birthday.

After retiring as a teacher, he worked as a librarian until he reached 80 years old. He is particularly meticulous toward his health, which might be the answer to his longevity.

For more information, please view Gisaburō Sonobe’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is glad to report the addition of Carmelina Augusta Delgado to our ever-growing directory of supercentenarians.. She was the oldest living Portuguese supercentenarian in her country at the time of death. Her age was recently validated by the European Supercentenarian Organisation (ESO).

Delgado was born in the parish of Cabeça de Igreja (later annexed to the parish of Tuizelo), Municipality of Vinhais, Bragança, Portugal, on 8 November 1900. She left Bragança to live with her godmother, “Dona Inacinha” when she was 10 years old.

At the age of 106.
(Source: Portal do Envelhecimento)

Carmelina left her godmother when she was 23 years old to marry a policeman named Manuel António Gonçalves. Because of his husband’s field of work, they are always moving places as she was accompanying Manuel wherever he was deployed. The couple had two daughters together where one learned to work as a seamstress and the other went to study for school.

Carmelina Delgado passed away in Vimioso, Bragança, Portugal, on 19 May 2013.

For more information, please view Carmelina Augusta Delgado’s Directory Profile here.

The European Supercentenarian Organisation (ESO) is an Accredited Partner Organization of LongeviQuest. ESO researchers are represented on the Global Validation Commission by Dr. Andrew Holmes.

LongeviQuest is delighted to announce the age validation of the world’s former world’s oldest living person and oldest undisputed man ever, Robert Alexander Early at 111 years old. He was an American supercentenarian who held these titles at the time of his death on 9 October 1960.

Robert Alexander Early was born in Watts Creek, Whitley County, Kentucky, USA, on 8 October 1849. He attended school in Williamsburg, and then started a decade-long teacher career after it.

In 1875, he married Eliza Ann Berry and had three children with her. In 1886, he was remarried to Sidney Ann King with whom he had six children with.

On his 111th birthday in 1960.
(Source: The Lexington Herald)

He was once a teacher, a mailer, a carpenter, a merchant, a carpenter, a Sunday-school superintendent, and a woodcarver. He spent his life with these professions in that specific order. Robert stopped woodcarving at 108 years old when his hands became too shaky.

Early passed away in Corbin, Whiley County, Kentucky, USA, on 9 October 1960, just a day after celebrating his 111^th birthday.

It’s believed that Early was the world’s oldest living person from October 1959 until his own death one year later, and how he is the first man who reached the age of 111.

For more information, please view Robert Alexander Early’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is happy to announce the validation of Ken Ishikawa’s age claim at 112 years old. She was a Japanese supercentenarian born on 22 February 1900, and the oldest-living person in Aichi Prefecture, Japan at the time of her passing.

The mayor of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture visited Ishikawa’s home in September 2003 and applauded her longevity when she was 103 years old.

Undated.
(Source: Gerontology Wiki)

Ishikawa passed away in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on 20 May 2012.

For more information, please view Ken Ishikawa’s Directory Profile here.

LongiviQuest is happy to announce the age validation of Mr. Tsunahei Ogawa, a Japanese supercentenarian who passed away just five days short of his 112th birthday. At the time of his passing, he was the second-oldest living man in Japan.

Mr. Ogawa was born in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, Japan, on 9 January 1907, but at some point in his life, he moved to Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. This is where he ran a kimono store for over 70 years.

In September 2018, aged 111.
(Source: Facebook/朝長則男（ともながのりお）)

Mr. Ogawa died of pneumonia in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, on 4 January 2019, five days before his 112^th birthday.

For more information, please view Tsunahei Ogawa’s Directory Profile here.

LongeviQuest is saddened to report the passing of Hazel Plummer. She was born on 19 June 1908 in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, and died on 25 May 2023 died in Littleton, Massachusetts, USA at the age of 114 years, 340 days. At the time of her death, Plummer was the oldest known person living in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the world’s 6th oldest living validated person (behind María Branyas Morera, Fusa Tatsumi, Edie Ceccarelli, Tomiko Itooka, and Inah Canabarro Lucas).

Plummer in August 2022, at the age of 114.

During her early years, Plummer went to trade school to become a seamstress. She then worked for an upscale designer on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1935, she married her husband Elmer Plummer and they had at least two children (sons). At the time of her 110th birthday in June 2018, Plummer had six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Plummer became the oldest known living person in the state of Massachusetts following the death of 112-year-old Dorothy Brown on 26 November 2019. In January 2020, her nursing home celebrated her achievement with a special party where she received a message from Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.

LongeviQuest is extending our deepest condolences to the bereaved family and friends of Mrs. Hazel Plummer.