Jeanne Calment

of Calment Jeanne Louise Calment was born on 21 February 1875 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence. Some of her close family members also had above-average lifespans. Her older brother, François (1865–1962), lived to the age of 97; her father, Nicolas (1837–1931), who was a shipbuilder, lived to be 93 years of age; and her mother, Marguerite Gilles (1838–1924), who was from a family of millers, lived to be 86 years of age. == Adult life ==

On 8 April 1896, at the age of 21, Jeanne married her double second cousin, Fernand Nicolas Calment (1868–1942). Their paternal grandfathers were brothers, and their paternal grandmothers were sisters. He had reportedly started courting her when she was 15, but Jeanne was "too young to be interested in boys". She gave birth to her only child, a daughter named Yvonne Marie Nicolle Calment, on 19 January 1898. Yvonne married army officer Joseph Billot on 3 February 1926, and their only son, Frédéric, was born on 23 December of the same year. after which Calment raised Frédéric, although he lived with his father in the neighbouring apartment. World War II had little effect on Jeanne's life. She said that German soldiers slept in her rooms but "did not take anything away", so that she bore no grudge against them. In 1942, her husband Fernand died, aged 73, reportedly of cherry poisoning. In 1985, she moved into a nursing home, having lived on her own until the age of 110. In 1996, ''Time's Mistress'', a four-track CD of Jeanne speaking over musical backing tracks in various styles, including rap, was released. == Oldest documented human ==

Longevity records In 1986, Calment became the oldest living person in France at the age of 111. Her profile increased during the centennial of Vincent van Gogh's move to Arles, which occurred from February 1888 to April 1889 when she was 13 and 14 years old. Calment claimed to reporters that she had met van Gogh at that time, introduced to him by her future husband in her uncle's fabric shop. She remembered that van Gogh gave her a condescending look, as if unimpressed by her. She described his personality as ugly, ungracious, and "very disagreeable", adding that he "reeked of alcohol". Calment said that she forgave van Gogh for his bad manners. She was recognised by The Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest living person in 1988, when she was 112. However, the Gerontology Research Group later validated the age of Easter Wiggins (1 June 1874 – 7 July 1990), meaning that in reality Calment became the world's oldest living person in 1990. At the age of 114, she briefly appeared in the 1990 fantasy film Vincent and Me, walking outside and answering questions. This was based on her surpassing the now-debunked age claim of Japanese man Shigechiyo Izumi. As a result of Izumi's validation being withdrawn, Calment had already been the oldest person ever since surpassing the age of Easter Wiggins on 30 March 1991. Far exceeding any other verified human lifespan, Calment is widely regarded as the best-documented supercentenarian recorded. For example, she was listed in fourteen census records, beginning in 1876 as a one-year-old infant. Age verification In 1994, the city of Arles inquired about Calment's personal documents, in order to contribute to the city archives. However, reportedly on Calment's instructions, her documents and family photographs were selectively burned by a distant family member, Josette Bigonnet, a cousin of her grandson. The verification of her age began in 1995 when she turned 120, and was conducted over a full year. She was asked questions about documented details concerning relatives, and about people and places from her early life, for instance teachers or maids. A great deal of emphasis was put on a series of documents from population censuses, in which Calment was named from 1876 to 1975. The family's membership in the local Catholic bourgeoisie helped researchers find corroborating chains of documentary evidence. Calment's father had been a member of the city council, and her husband owned a large drapery and clothing business. The family lived in two apartments located in the same building as the store, one for Calment, her husband and his mother, one for their daughter Yvonne, her husband and their child. Several house servants were registered in the premises as well. and seeing the Eiffel Tower being built. Another wrote that she started fencing in 1960, aged 85. There have been various speculations about the authenticity of her age. In 2018, Russian gerontologist Valery Novoselov and mathematician Nikolay Zak revived the hypothesis that Jeanne died in 1934 and her daughter Yvonne, born in 1898, assumed her mother's official identity and was therefore 99 years old when she died in 1997. Around the same time, a series of related posts by gerontology blogger Yuri Deigin, titled "J'Accuse!", had gone viral on Medium. This hypothesis is considered weak by mainstream longevity experts, such as French gerontologist Jean-Marie Robine, who pointed out that during his research, Calment had correctly answered questions about things that her daughter could not have known first-hand. Robine also dismissed the idea that the residents of Arles could have been duped by the switch. In September 2019, several French scientists released a paper in The Journals of Gerontology pointing out inaccuracies in the Zak et al. paper. The team presented evidence to support Calment's age – including multiple official documents, census data, and photographic evidence – and also argued that it was indeed statistically possible to reach Calment's age. The authors criticised the advocates of the identity switch hypothesis, and called for a retraction of Zak's article. In February 2020, Zak and Philip Gibbs published an assessment applying Bayes' theorem to the question of her authenticity, noting that, while being subjective, it gave "a 99.99% chance of an identity switch in the case of Mme Calment". François Robin-Champigneul and Robert Young commented on Zak's and Gibbs' findings, with Robin-Champigneul saying that it "appears to be in fact a subjective and nonrigorous analysis", and Young saying that "[i]gnoring the actual facts of the case and stringing together opinions in a 'Bayesian' analysis are to merely misuse a mathematical tool". Young is said to have found that "a very solid case that Jeanne was 122 years has already been made" but that biosampling was still needed to test "for biomarkers of extraordinary longevity". Robin-Champigneul stated that "the hypothesis of an identity swap with her daughter appears not even realistic given the context and the facts, and not supported by evidence". == Health and lifestyle ==

Calment's health presaged her later record. On television she stated "" (). At age 20, incipient cataracts were discovered when she suffered a major episode of conjunctivitis. She washed herself unassisted with a flannel cloth rather than taking a shower, applying first soap, then olive oil and powder to her face. She washed her own glass and cutlery before proceeding to lunch. She enjoyed daube (braised beef), but was not keen on boiled fish. She had dessert with every meal, and said that given a choice, she would eat fried and spicy foods instead of the bland foods on the menu. She made herself daily fruit salads with bananas and oranges. She enjoyed chocolate, sometimes indulging in a kilogram (2.2 lb) per week. After the meal, she smoked a cigarette and drank a small amount of port wine. In the afternoon, she would take a nap for two hours in her armchair, and then visit her neighbours in the care home, telling them about the latest news she had heard on the radio. At nightfall, she would dine quickly, return to her room, listen to music (her poor eyesight preventing her from enjoying her crosswords pastime), smoke a last cigarette and go to bed at 10:00p.m. Calment reportedly remained "mentally sharp" until the end of her life. == Death ==

Calment died on 4 August 1997 in a nursing home in Arles, France. She was 122 years and 164 days old. French media reported that she died of natural causes, though some English-language obituaries did not specify a cause of death. The New York Times quoted demographer Jean-Marie Robine as stating that she had been in good health, albeit almost blind and deaf, as little as a month before her death. == See also ==