Anne Christopher
Anne Langston Christopher (March 4, 1895 – October 10, 2007) was an American supercentenarian. Before her death at age 112 years 220 days, she was the oldest validated person living in the state of Georgia, the seventh-oldest in the United States, and had been the 11th-oldest in the world since the September 20, 2007 death of Australia's oldest person, Myra Nicholson.
Biography
Christopher was born in South Carolina, where she lived in Timmonsville and Pickens respectively.[1] She moved to Georgia in 2002, at age 107, to live near her relatives.
Christopher was reared on a tobacco farm, could easily wring a chicken's neck and pluck it clean for cooking and was a Clark Gable fan. She received a bachelor's degree from Limestone College in Gaffney, SC and was a school teacher for many years.[1] She claimed to remember the historical flight of the Wright brothers in 1903 when she was 8 and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 when she was 17.[2] Though her later life at assisted living centers was good, she figured the afterlife would be even better.[3]
Christopher had no secrets for her longevity other than to attribute it to God's mercy and eating and sleeping well. When asked to explain her longevity, Anne admitted at 111, "I don't know. I wonder why. I haven't done anything special. We don't know why I'm living so long, do we?"[3] She once attributed her good health and long life to eating and sleeping well. "I never drank. I didn't smoke, either," she said. However, her granddaughter Harriett Brock of Rome refreshed her memory, saying, "Don't you remember when you come to my house, I give you a glass of wine?"[2]
Death
Christopher died at a senior living center in Rome, Georgia.
Family
Christopher was preceded in death by her husband, Gignilliatte Garvin Christopher, former mayor of Pickens, SC, as well as her son, Gignilliatte Garvin Christopher, Jr., daughter, Ann Christopher Brown; two grandsons, a sister, brother and 2 sons-in-law. She was survived by her daughter, Marion Christopher Emmitt, four grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, five great-great-grandchildren, two nephews, and numerous great-nieces and great-nephews.
