Happy 116th Birthday to Naomi Whitehead: Celebrating America’s Oldest Living Woman
Naomi Whitehead has reached an extraordinary milestone: 116 years old. Born on September 26, 1910, in Patterson, Georgia, Whitehead has lived through more than a century of American history, witnessing the transformation of the country from the early years of the 20th century into the digital age.
On September 26, 2026, family, friends, and admirers marked her 116th birthday. Whitehead is recognized by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) as the oldest living person in the United States, and her age has been validated by researchers specializing in exceptional longevity.
Her story is not simply about an extraordinary number of birthdays. It is also a story about family, migration, changing communities, perseverance, and a lifetime that spans some of the most dramatic periods in modern American history.
A remarkable 116-year journey
Naomi Whitehead was born Naomi Washington on September 26, 1910, in Patterson, Pierce County, Georgia. According to the Gerontology Research Group, her parents were Douglas and Pauline Washington. She grew up in rural Georgia, where farm life was a major part of her childhood.
Her childhood belonged to a completely different America from the one we know today. When Whitehead was born, automobiles were still becoming common, commercial aviation was in its infancy, radio broadcasting had not yet become a household phenomenon, and the First World War was still several years away.
Growing up on a farm, she and her family were involved in agricultural work, including picking cotton and tobacco. Her early years in Georgia would eventually become the foundation of a life that took her far beyond the rural community where she was born.
More than a century later, Whitehead's life provides a remarkable human connection to a period that can otherwise feel distant and abstract.
From Naomi Washington to Naomi Whitehead
In the 1930s, Naomi married Sylvester Whitehead. Together, they had three sons: Sylvester Jr., Parrish L., and Elbert T. Her husband died in 1979, and Whitehead never remarried, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Her family continued to grow over the decades. When she celebrated her 110th birthday in 2020, the GRG reported that she had 12 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, 49 great-great-grandchildren and three great-great-great-grandchildren.
That family history illustrates another extraordinary dimension of reaching extreme old age: Whitehead has lived long enough to see several generations of her family grow up.
Sadly, she also experienced significant loss. Her three sons all died before her, with her last surviving son passing away in 2011.
Despite those losses, her family connections have remained an important part of her story.
A life spanning generations of change
It is difficult to comprehend just how much the world changed during Whitehead's lifetime.
She was born before the First World War. During her lifetime, humanity experienced two world wars, the Great Depression, the development of commercial aviation, the spread of television, the Civil Rights Movement, the arrival of computers, the moon landing, the invention and expansion of the internet, smartphones, social media, and artificial intelligence.
In 1910, a telephone was still a relatively remarkable technology for many households. Today, people carry powerful computers in their pockets and communicate instantly across continents.
Whitehead has therefore lived through an era in which technological, social, economic and cultural changes occurred at an extraordinary pace.
Her longevity offers a unique perspective on that transformation. Someone born in 1910 could remember a world in which daily life depended heavily on agriculture and local communities, and then live long enough to see humans explore space and computers become part of virtually every aspect of modern life.
Becoming a supercentenarian
Whitehead entered the exclusive group known as supercentenarians when she turned 110 in September 2020.
A supercentenarian is generally defined as a person who has reached at least 110 years of age. Reaching that milestone is exceptionally rare, and documenting such ages requires careful examination of historical records.
The Gerontology Research Group states that Whitehead's age was investigated and validated in 2023. Her documentation was reviewed by researchers including Robert Young, Wacław Jan Kroczek, Ilias Leivaditis and Oliver Trim.
That verification is important because claims of extreme longevity require particularly strong evidence. Birth records, census information, marriage records and other historical documents can be used to establish a consistent identity and timeline across a person's life.
Whitehead's birth date of September 26, 1910 has been validated by the GRG.
From Pennsylvania's oldest resident to America's oldest living person
Whitehead eventually became associated with Pennsylvania, where she has lived for many years.
In August 2022, following the death of another supercentenarian, Lenara Carey, Whitehead became the oldest known living person in Pennsylvania.
Her national milestone came later.
On October 22, 2024, Elizabeth Francis, who had been recognized as America's oldest living person, died at the age of 115. Following Francis's death, Whitehead became the oldest living person in the United States. The GRG formally announced the recognition on October 24, 2024.
At that point, Whitehead was 114 years old.
Her position continued through 2025, when she celebrated her 115th birthday. The GRG reported that milestone on September 26, 2025, describing Whitehead as the oldest known living person in the United States.
One year later, she reached an even rarer milestone.
116 years old
On September 26, 2026, Naomi Whitehead celebrated her 116th birthday.
Her hometown of Patterson, Georgia, began celebrating ahead of the birthday. A local report published September 22 described a reception held in her honor, with members of the Washington family gathering to celebrate their famous relative.
The occasion is especially meaningful because Whitehead's connection to Patterson reaches all the way back to her childhood.
For the community, celebrating her is also a celebration of one of its own natives who has gone on to become one of the world's oldest verified people.
Her 116th birthday places her among a very small group of people in documented history who have reached that age. Longevity databases that track validated supercentenarians list Whitehead among the oldest people ever documented.
The oldest living American — and one of the world's oldest people
Whitehead's 116th birthday also has international significance.
As of late September 2026, longevity researchers identify her as the oldest living person in the United States. The GRG's current profile lists her birth date as September 26, 1910, and her residence as Pennsylvania.
She is also among the world's oldest living people.
The world's oldest living person is identified as Britain's Ethel Caterham, who was born in August 1909. Whitehead, born in September 1910, is therefore slightly more than a year younger.
This distinction is worth noting because being America's oldest living person does not necessarily mean being the oldest person on Earth. Different countries have their own exceptionally old residents, and international rankings change as people reach birthdays or pass away.
What remains clear is that Whitehead occupies a remarkable place in the history of American longevity.
What can we learn from exceptional longevity?
Stories about people who live beyond 110 naturally lead to questions about the secret of a long life.
Whitehead has previously said that she never smoked or drank alcohol, and the GRG has documented several of her hobbies and interests, including cooking, baking, drawing, listening to music and sharing stories.
Her faith has also been mentioned in accounts of her life.
However, it is important not to turn the experience of one exceptionally long-lived person into a universal formula for longevity. A person's lifespan is influenced by many factors, including genetics, environment, access to healthcare, socioeconomic circumstances, lifestyle, chance and other factors.
Whitehead's experience can therefore be appreciated as an individual story rather than treated as proof that one particular habit guarantees an exceptionally long life.
What is particularly striking is the breadth of her life experience.
A living link to the past
There is something uniquely powerful about meeting or learning about someone who was born in 1910.
Most of the people who experienced the early decades of the 20th century are no longer alive. Whitehead represents a living connection to an era that is increasingly known only through photographs, books, newspapers and historical archives.
She was born just a few years after the Wright brothers' famous flights and lived to see commercial air travel become routine. She was born before television and lived into an era of streaming video and smartphones.
She entered adulthood before the Second World War and lived through the enormous social transformations that followed it.
She was already an adult when the modern Civil Rights Movement emerged, and she witnessed the gradual transformation of American society across subsequent decades.
She was also alive when humans first walked on the Moon in 1969.
By the time she reached 100, the world had already entered the internet age. By 116, artificial intelligence and digital communication had become major parts of everyday life.
Few individual lifetimes encompass such a broad sweep of technological and social change.
A birthday shared across generations
A 116th birthday is naturally more than a personal celebration when someone has a family spanning several generations.
Whitehead's descendants have been able to celebrate not merely a birthday but an extraordinary family history. Her longevity means that younger generations can hear stories from someone whose memories reach much further back than most people alive today.
Family stories can preserve details that never appear in official history books: what ordinary life felt like, how communities changed, what families valued, and how previous generations experienced major events.
The GRG has previously noted that Whitehead's grandniece, Gwendolyn Smith, described her as a source of family stories that had not previously been heard.
That makes her story particularly meaningful. Longevity is measured numerically in years and days, but its human significance is often found in the memories accumulated along the way.
More than a number
The number 116 is extraordinary, but Naomi Whitehead's story is about much more than reaching a remarkable age.
It is about a girl born in rural Georgia in 1910 who grew up in a very different America. It is about a woman who married, raised three sons, became a grandmother and great-grandmother, experienced profound loss, moved through different stages of life, and eventually became a nationally recognized supercentenarian.
It is also about historical continuity.
When Whitehead was born, the United States was a very different country. The technologies, transportation systems, medical practices and social institutions familiar today either did not exist or were in their earliest stages.
Over the course of her life, she saw those things develop and transform.
And now, at 116, she has reached a milestone that very few people have ever experienced.
Happy 116th birthday, Naomi Whitehead
Naomi Whitehead's 116th birthday is an extraordinary moment for her family, her hometown of Patterson, Pennsylvania communities, and everyone interested in the remarkable limits of human longevity.
Born on September 26, 1910, she has now completed 116 years of life — a span that stretches from the early 20th century deep into the 21st.
The Gerontology Research Group continues to recognize her age as validated, while longevity databases list her as the oldest living American.
Her story reminds us that history is not only something found in textbooks and archives. Sometimes, history is represented by a person who is still here to tell the story.
At 116, Naomi Whitehead stands as, and a chance for people around the world to appreciate the extraordinary journey of a woman whose life began in 1910 and has continued into an extraordinary example of a life that has crossed generations, witnessed enormous change and accumulated more than a century of memories.
Happy 116th birthday, Naomi Whitehead! 🎉🎂🎊
May this remarkable milestone be a moment of celebration for her family and community, and a chance for people around the world to appreciate the extraordinary journey of a woman whose life began in 1910 and has continued into 2026.
