Supercentenarian Profile

Florence Boggs

Born:

1903-11-16

Brooklyn, New York

United States

Died:

2016-05-15

Carlsbad, California

United States

✔ Age Certified by LongeviQuest

Florence Anna Boggs (née Ross) was an American supercentenarian. Her age has been validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) and recognised by LongeviQuest.

BIOGRAPHY

Florence Boggs was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 16 November 1903. Her father, Robert Ross, was a Navy chief petty officer, and her mother, Leona, worked as a seamstress. As a teenager, she found work in New York’s Carnegie libraries, earning ten cents an hour to carefully wash book pages with soap and water.

Hoping to build a new life on the warmer West Coast, she saved her library wages to book solo passage on the USS Manchuria. The ship carried her through the Panama Canal to San Francisco in 1923. While attending college in Oregon, she met Clifton Boggs, whom she married in 1929. Together they had two daughters: Joanne and Carol, a retired lawyer now living in London.

Clifton retired in 1960 from his career as an accountant at General Motors, and in 1972 the couple settled in Rancho Bernardo. He passed away twenty years later, just shy of their 62nd wedding anniversary. Beyond art, Boggs enjoyed bridge, reading in both English and French, and traveling. Remarkably, she continued taking annual cruises until the age of 109.

Florence Boggs passed away in Carlsbad, California, on 15 May 2016, at the age of 112 years, 181 days.

RECOGNITION

Boggs’ age was verified by Dr. L. Stephen Coles, Mark Muir, Elias Leivaditis, James Hampshire, and Stefan Maglov, and was validated by the GRG on 13 November 2015.