Celebrity Deaths: Stars and Famous People We’ve Lost in 2021

Hester Ford, oldest living American, 115 or 116

(Aug. 15, 1905 — April 17, 2021) Hester McCardell Ford, who had been the oldest living American, died Saturday in her home, in Charlotte, North Carolina, The Charlotte Observer reported. The supercentenarian lived 115 years and 245 days, according to the Gerontology Research Group. U.S. Census Bureau documents, though, give her year of birth as either 1904 (making her 116 years old) or 1905 (making her 115).

Ford was born on a farm in Lancaster County, South Carolina, and picked cotton and plowed fields in her youth. At just 14 years old, she wed John Ford and, at age 15, gave birth to the first of their 12 children. Her husband died in 1963. Ford had 68 grandchildren, 125 great-grandchildren and at least 120 great-great-grandchildren, according to the Observer. “She not only represented the advancement of our family but of the Black African American race and culture in our country,” a great-granddaughter, Tanisha Patterson-Powe, told the newspaper. When, last summer, the Observer asked Ford her secret to longevity, she replied, “I just live right, all I know.” Relatives said she enjoyed hearty breakfasts (always including a half of a banana), fresh air, a bit of exercise, singing, puzzles, looking at family albums and writing her name on her Etch-a-Sketch. Ford was a teen during the 1918 influenza pandemic. She celebrated her final birthday — during the coronavirus pandemic — by wearing a crown and watching a drive-through parade held in her honor as the people in attendance applauded her.