Sarah DeRemer Knauss (née Clark) was a validated American supercentenarian who was the oldest living person in the world from the death of Marie-Louise Meilleur on 16 April 1998 until her own death on 30 December 1999 at the age of 119 years, 97 days. She is the third-oldest validated person in history, behind only Jeanne Calment and Kane Tanaka.
Sarah DeRemer Clark was born in Hollywood, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA, a “mining patch” community that no longer exists, at a time when the now-famous Hollywood, California did not yet exist. She lived much of her life in Allentown, where she brought up her daughter Kathryn Sullivan (17 November 1903 – 21 January 2005).
There was also a history of longevity in her family: her paternal grandmother lived to the age of 98, and her cousin Minnie Kresge (2 October 1893 – 24 February 1999) lived to the age of 105. In addition, her daughter Kathryn Sullivan lived to the age of 101. She married Abraham Lincoln Knauss in 1901. Their only child was Kathryn Sullivan. Knauss lived with her daughter from the age of 96 and moved into a nursing home at the age of 111. At the age of 118, Knauss was still able to have a conversation with her daughter, but in the last six months of her life, she did not respond to conversations.
Knauss died rather abruptly while sitting in her chair on 3:00 p.m. of 30 December 1999, caused by natural causes. She died 33 hours before the millennium year 2000, and was survived by five generations of descendants. Some of her organs were bequeathed to the New England Centenarian Study, which did an autopsy.
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Knauss became the last living American born in the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes after the death of Wilhelmina Kott on 6 September 1994.
Knauss’s longevity first came to light after the death of Jeanne Calment in 1997, when she and Marie-Louise Meilleur were first authenticated (previously, Mary Bidwell (19 May 1881 – 25 April 1996) had been believed to be the oldest American).
Knauss was the seventh validated person to reach the age of 115, the fourth to reach 116, the third to reach 117, and the second to reach 118 and 119. She is also the third-oldest validated person ever, after Jeanne Calment of France and Kane Tanaka of Japan.
Until December 2020, Knauss was thought to have been one of only two validated American supercentenarians to have reached the age of 117 until Lucy Hannah’s age would end up being debunked, meaning that Knauss was the only validated supercentenarian in the history of the United States to reach the age of 117.
Knauss was the oldest validated person ever to achieve the title of world’s oldest living person, having achieved the title at the age of 117 years, 204 days on 16 April 1998, following the death of 117-year-old Marie-Louise Meilleur, until Lucile Randon achieved the title at the age of 118 years, 67 days on 19 April 2022, following the death of 119-year-old Kane Tanaka.
Knauss remains the only person from the United States to reach the ages of 117, 118, and 119, one of only two people from North America to reach the age of 117 (the other being Marie-Louise Meilleur), one of only four people to reach the age of 118 (the others being Jeanne Calment, Kane Tanaka, and Lucile Randon), and one of only three people to reach the age of 119 (the others being Jeanne Calment and Kane Tanaka).
