Background
Renfro claimed she was born in 1894, which would have made her the oldest person in the world at the time of her death.
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Maggie Renfro
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Renfro was also the fourth-oldest person in the world and the oldest African-American person from the death of Gertrude Baines, until her own passing. The United States Census of 1900, however, places her as a four-year-old, born in November 1895. The 1910 census lists Renfro as aged 14 in April 1910, meaning she was born in 1895.
Her social security record also listed her as born on November 14, 1895.
She was born in Athens in southern Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, the fourth of eleven children of Wylie and Dellie Thornton. At the age of 19, she became a cook for a road crew.
The two had no children, and, following his death in 1971, Renfro moved to Minden, the seat of Webster Parish, near her native Athens, where she lived until her death. She attributed her longevity to being "a good servant for God." "Love everybody.
Treat everybody right," she once said.
She also never drank nor smoked. "I feel good," Renfro said in December 2007. "Nothing hurts me right now, and I"m not sick."
Renfro had two sisters who lived to be centenarians, Carrie Lee Thornton Miller (April 9, 1902 – January 5, 2010), aged 107 at her death, and Rosie Lee Thornton Warren (January 6, 1906 – December 18, 2009), aged 103.
Rosie and Carrie had died only eighteen days apart.
They had the oldest combined age of three living siblings at 324 years. Like Renfro, Rosie lived in the care of relatives in Minden, while Carrie lived in an extensive care hospital in Shreveport.
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Quotations: "Love everybody; treat everybody right,". "I feel good,".
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Born
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Died
January 22, 2010 (aged 114) -
Nationality
United States