America’s oldest living person, Naomi Whitehead, celebrates her 116th birthday surrounded by family
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The Georgia-born supercentenarian marked the milestone with a celebration attended by as many as 90 relatives.
Naomi Whitehead was asked her age at her own party. Her answer drew cheers.
“I think I’m 116,” she told one of her great-nieces, which turned out to be exactly right. USA TODAY reported that Whitehead, the oldest living person in the United States, marked the milestone Sept. 27 in Greenville, Pennsylvania, according to LongeviQuest, the research organization that verifies and tracks supercentenarians.
The gathering functioned as much like a reunion as a birthday. Two of her locally based grandchildren organized the event, which drew between 80 and 90 relatives from across the country, including several great-great-great-grandchildren. Whitehead wore a sparkling blue outfit while family members turned up in matching blue shirts printed with her photograph and a gold “116.”
Pennsylvania state Sen. Michele Brooks attended and presented a proclamation in her honor, and LongeviQuest representatives delivered a plaque formally recognizing her as the oldest living American. She mingled with guests and posed for a group photograph before retiring to her room while the celebration carried on without her.
Her granddaughter handled the cooking, and the menu ran toward what the occasion called for chicken, ham, green beans, macaroni and cheese, pasta with meatballs, baked beans and punch. Photographs from across her life lined the venue, with more arranged on the cake.
The day also served a purpose beyond celebration. One of her great-nieces spent the afternoon collecting family stories from those in attendance, recording histories that stretch back generations.
That history begins on a Georgia farm, where Naomi Washington was born on Sept. 26, 1910. She started working young, helping her family pick cotton and tobacco. She married Sylvester Whitehead in 1930, and the couple raised three sons: Parrish, who died in 2011, along with Elbert and Sylvester.
Whitehead became the nation’s oldest living person in October 2024, at 114, following the death of Elizabeth Francis. This past February she moved into second place globally, trailing only 117-year-old Ethel Caterham of the United Kingdom, after the death of France’s Marie-Rose Tessier.