Background
Susannah Mushatt was born to Callie and Mary Mushatt on July 6, 1899, in Lowndes County, Alabama. She was the third child and oldest daughter of eleven children.
Susannah Mushatt was born to Callie and Mary Mushatt on July 6, 1899, in Lowndes County, Alabama. She was the third child and oldest daughter of eleven children.
On March 4, 1922, she graduated from the Calhoun Boarding High School and the graduation roster recognized her for studying "Negro Music in France".
According to her family, she also has some Native American ancestry. As a young woman, she worked in the fields and was determined to escape that hard existence. After graduation, she wanted to become a teacher and was accepted to Tuskegee Institute"s Teacher"s Program.
Her parents could not afford tuition, so in 1923, she moved to New York during the early stages of the Harlem Renaissance.
During this time, she supported many of her relatives as they moved to New New York She also used some of her salary to establish The Calhoun Club, which was a college scholarship fund for African American students at her high school.
She was active in her neighborhood for almost 30 years, participating in the "tenant patrol team". Jones is blind and partially deaf.
She cannot say much and she uses a wheelchair.
She only takes high-blood pressure medication and a multivitamin. She became legally blind when she was 100. She has refused cataract surgery and a recommended pacemaker and has never had a mammogram or a colonoscopy.
She meets with a primary care physician three to four times a year.
Jones has never smoked, consumed alcohol, partied, worn makeup, or dyed her hair. She sleeps about ten hours a night and naps throughout the day.
Foreign breakfast she always eats four strips of bacon along with scrambled eggs and grits. She also eats bacon throughout the day.
Jones has celebrated her last five birthdays at the Vandalia Senior Center in Brooklyn.
On her 112th, she received tribute letters from both the mayor of New York City and the governor of New New York After the celebration, she said, "I wish it could be like this all the time." On her 113th, she was escorted by Charles Barron. Jones celebrated her 114th birthday six days late.
Her great-great niece, a baby named Susannah after her, was also present.
Jones became the world"s oldest living person and one of two remaining people verified to have been born in the 1800s (along with Italian woman Emma Morano) upon the death of Jeralean Talley on June 17, 2015.