Supercentenarian Profile

Audrey Lott

Born:

1903-10-18

Washington, D.C.

United States

Died:

2013-10-31

Tiffin, Ohio

United States

Audrey Lott was an American supercentenarian.

BIOGRAPHY

Audrey Lott was born in Washington, D.C. on 18 October 1903, to parents Louis and Estelle Brown. She grew up in the nation’s capital and attended Dunbar High School, the first public high school in the United States for Black students. With the financial support of her uncle, who also employed her in his store, she studied pharmacology for a year. After her father’s death, however, she left college to help care for her family.

Her father, who worked in a fish market, contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 35. Her grandfather, a formerly enslaved man, served as a water boy for General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. With Grant’s assistance, he later secured a government position. As the eldest of four children, Lott eventually left the drugstore to work as a maid at the Daughters of the American Revolution House in Washington. Her first marriage, to Grant Taylor, ended with his early death; they had one son together, also named Grant Taylor. In 1947, she married Clentis Lott. After his passing, she moved in the 1960s to Tiffin to be closer to her son, where she worked as a housekeeper for local families.

Later in life, she became a resident of Kiwanis Manor, a senior apartment building, where she lived independently until age 99, when she suffered a broken hip. She loved reading, especially old western novels, working crossword puzzles, and crocheting blankets for fellow residents. She credited her long life to healthy habits and eating fresh food from the garden. On her 110th birthday, she received a congratulatory letter from Governor John Kasich, and the St. Francis community hosted a celebration in her honor.

Audrey Lott passed away in Tiffin, Ohio, on 31 October 2013, at the age of 110 years, 13 days.