Supercentenarian Profile

Emma Strause

Born:

1902-12-22

New Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania

United States

Died:

2013-03-28

Wyomissing, Pennsylvania

United States

Emma Strause (née Knoll; formerly Stoudt) was an American supercentenarian.

BIOGRAPHY

Emma Strause was born in New Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, USA, on 22 December 1902. Her parents were J. Michael Knoll (1861–1961) and Lovina E. Holtzman (1864–1950). She had two sisters: Nellie H. Troutman (1887–1953) and Marie Holzman Gordon (1905–2008). Her father died at the age of 100, and sister at 102.

Strause attended a one-room school through the eighth grade and later graduated from Penn Bernville High School. She went on to graduate from Kutztown Normal School—now Kutztown University—earning a Normal Degree. She later attended the University of Maryland, where she obtained both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education.

Strause devoted her career to education, beginning as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. She later taught in and became principal of an elementary school in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She was a faithful member of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in New Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania.

She was married first to Harry L. Stoudt, a comptroller with the U.S. Treasury, who died in 1969, and later to Dr. Harold Strause, an ophthalmologist from Reading, who died in 1981.

Emma Strause passed away in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, on 28 March 2013, at the age of 110 years, 96 days.