Lucy Terrell (1875-1993)

Lucy Hannah (Alabama, July 16, 1875 - Michigan, March 21, 1993) was an American supercentenarian. Lucy is the fourth-oldest person on record and the oldest African American, as well as the oldest living American at the time of her death. Some scientific circles consider her to be the third-oldest person ever, though Guinness recognizes her as fourth, after Jeanne Calment (1875-1997), the disputed Shigechiyo Izumi (1865?-1986) and Sarah Knauss (1880-1999) respectively. She was also the oldest person not to be the "world's oldest living person", since the final years of her life coincided with those of Jeanne Calment, the oldest documented person in history. At Lucy's death, her family claimed she was 118, but the case escaped more than local media notice. However, further investigation by the Social Security Administration's "Kestenbaum" study more than a decade later verified her age at death as having been 117 years and 248 days.