Elizabeth Francis, a Black woman from Texas who was the oldest known living person in the U.S., has died. She was 115.
Her 69-year-old granddaughter, Ethel Harrison, told ABC News her grandmother died peacefully on Tuesday, Oct. 22, in her nursing home surrounded by loved ones.
Francis, who lived in Houston, gained notoriety as the third oldest living person in the world and, according to global longevity tracker Longeviquest, the 54th oldest person ever recorded. She was considered a supercentenarian, which is someone who reaches age 110 or older.
“She loved the Lord. Her faith was extremely strong,” Harrison said of her grandmother. “She was always, you know, jolly, you know, ‘How you doing? You’re doing okay?’ That was just her personality. And she would always say, treat people like you want to be treated. And that was her motto.”
The Dallas Morning News reported that Francis was born in Louisiana on July 25, 1909. As a girl, she relocated to Houston to live with an aunt after her mother’s death which caused her and her five siblings to be sent to different homes.
In 1928, she gave birth to her only child, a daughter named Dorothy, 95. She was a single mother who went on to run a coffee shop at ABC13 News in Houston for 20 years until she retired in 1975. Her granddaughter suspects the “pretty simple” life she led ultimately contributed to her longevity.
“She never learned to drive, so she took the bus to work, or people in the family would give her a ride,” Harrison, told The Washington Post in 2023. “She also did a lot of walking, so maybe that explains some of her longevity.”
She added, “Her life was always pretty simple: early to bed, early to rise, work hard, then come home and make a nutritious meal and be with family.”
According to The Dallas Morning News, when asked herself, Francis once said, “If the good Lord gave it to you, use it. Speak your mind, don’t hold your tongue.”
Francis also never smoked, didn’t drink, and ate everything!