Catherine Ferrell, the second-oldest (known) living person in the USA, celebrated her 114th birthday in Durham, North Carolina.
A day before her birthday, on 9 October, she was honored during North Carolina Central University’s Founder’s Day celebration.
Ferrell was born Catherine Spearman in Warsaw, North Carolina, on 10 October 1912. She grew up in a two-room house with a fireplace. Her father passed away while she was very young. Her mother, Callie Spearman, only completed the third grade; but instilled in her children going to school and getting an education. She had one younger sister, Mary. Catherine was involved in the church at a very early age, as her mother made sure that she was in Sunday School every Sunday.
In 1931, she graduated from Frederick Douglas High School as valedictorian of her class. She also played on the school’s basketball team. A year or two following her graduation she met Walter Williams, her future husband, at church.
After divorcing her first husband, she moved to Durham, North Carolina in 1945, where she made sure that she did not take a job that required her to work on Sunday, as she wanted to be involved in Church. She aspired to be a teacher but did not have the funds to attend college. However, she was home teaching her children, family, and other community children and taught Sunday school classes for most of her life. At some point, she remarried Maynard Ferrell, a delivery man. They first settled into a home in East Durham. The couple had two children: David and Shirley Ferrell.
On 25 October 2022, following the passing of 110-year-old Virginia Van Peenen, she became the oldest (known) living person in the U.S. state of North Carolina, at the age of 110 years, 15 days.
At the moment, she is the second-oldest (known) living person in the USA, after Naomi Whitehead. On 29 September, shortly after Whitehead’s 116th birthday, a post on Ferrell’s Facebook page congratulated her, stating: “May God continue to bless her, and her family and her friends. (I’d love to talk to her. I know we would have a good talk).”
LongeviQuest extends warm congratulations to Catherine Ferrell on her 114th birthday.
