Marie-Louise Meilleur


Marie-Louise Fébronie Meilleur was a French Canadian supercentenarian. Meilleur is the oldest validated Canadian ever and upon the death of longevity world record holder Jeanne Calment, became the world's oldest recognized living person. She was succeeded as the oldest living person by Sarah Knauss.

Early life

She was born in Kamouraska, Quebec, where she married her first husband, Étienne Leclerc, at age 20 in 1900 who was a fisherman. Étienne Leclerc died of pneumonia on February 24, 1911, aged 39. Her father died on June 25, 1911, aged 61. Her mother died February 23, 1912, aged 59. Meilleur left two of her four surviving children in 1913 and moved to the Ontario border to help support her sister, whose children were sick with diphtheria. She returned to the Quebec region in 1939. She had six children by her second husband, Hector Meilleur, whom she married on October 25, 1915.

Later life

Her second husband Hector Meilleur died in 1972, of diabetes at age 93. From there she lived first with a daughter and then in a nursing home in Corbeil. Out of her twelve children, only four survived her. She had 85 grandchildren, 80 great-grandchildren, 57 great-great-grandchildren, and four great-great-great-grandchildren. She quit smoking aged 102 in 1982 when she caught a cold. In 1986 when asked the secret to long life she claimed hard work. She became the world's oldest living person on August 4, 1997, after the death of 122-year-old Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment. Around her 117th birthday she was too weak to talk and she could only hear if someone shouted directly into her right ear.

Death

Marie Louise Meilleur died of a thrombus at age 117 in April 1998 in Corbeil, Ontario. One of her sons was living in the same nursing home, and her oldest living daughter, Gabrielle Vaughan, was ninety years old. Gabrielle died in 2004 aged 96. Meilleur was buried alongside her second husband in Swisha, where she had previously lived.