Now picture that reunion built around one guest of honor. Her name is Naomi Whitehead, and on September 26, she turned 116.
According to LongeviQuest, a research organization that verifies the ages of the world’s oldest people, she is the oldest living person in the United States. Only one person on Earth is known to be older: Ethel Caterham of the United Kingdom, who is 117. The Gerontology Research Group, which validated Whitehead’s age in 2023, also lists her as the oldest known living American.
A Party Worth the Trip
The celebration took place in Greenville, Pennsylvania, where Whitehead lives. Two of her grandchildren who live nearby organized it, and about 80 to 90 relatives came from across the country. Several of them were her great-great-great-grandchildren.
The family came dressed for the occasion. Relatives wore matching blue shirts with her photograph and a gold “116” on the front, and each shirt named the wearer’s relationship to her on the back. The guest of honor wore a sparkling blue outfit of her own.
Photographs from across her life lined the room, and more appeared on the cake. Her granddaughter handled the cooking: chicken, ham, green beans, macaroni and cheese, pasta with meatballs, baked beans, and punch. She seemed to especially enjoy the food and the punch.
Then came what LongeviQuest described as one of the afternoon’s most memorable moments. One of her great-nieces asked, “How old are you, Auntie?”
“I think I’m 116,” she replied. The room broke into cheers.
Whitehead stayed for nearly two hours. She posed for a group picture with her relatives, then for photos with individual family groups. When she headed up to her room, the party kept going without her.
Where Did Her Story Begin?
Naomi Washington was born on September 26, 1910, on a farm near Patterson, Georgia, to Douglas and Pauline Washington. She started working young, helping her family pick cotton and tobacco. In 1930, she married Sylvester Whitehead, and the couple raised three sons.
Over the years, she has enjoyed cooking, baking, drawing, listening to music, and telling a good story, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Patterson has not forgotten her. About a week before her birthday, the town held a reception in her honor, and members of the Patterson Historical Commission presented a plaque. Her nephew Daniel Washington, a retired local educator, accepted it on her behalf.
A large crowd of Washington relatives came to the reception and signed a card for family members to deliver on her birthday. About a dozen of them planned to make the trip to Pennsylvania to see her. A plaque honoring her will also be on display at Patterson City Hall. In a photo caption from the gathering, The Blackshear Times called her “Big Aunt Naomi.”
Who Keeps Your Family’s Stories?
Here is the part worth holding onto. One of Whitehead’s great-nieces spent the afternoon in Greenville collecting family stories and memories from the relatives who came.
That suits this family. According to the Gerontology Research Group, a grandniece named Gwendolyn Smith has said that Whitehead herself has been a source of family stories no one had heard before.
Ben Meyers, the founder and chief executive of LongeviQuest, put it this way: “Seeing so many generations of her family come together from across the country to honor her was a powerful reminder that these records are ultimately about people, families, and the history they carry with them.”
When Whitehead turned 110 in 2020, the Gerontology Research Group reported that her family included 12 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, 49 great-great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-great-grandchildren. That is a great deal of history. Now more of it has been recorded.
The next time the folding tables come out at your own family gathering, you can do what that great-niece did. Ask the oldest person in the room where your family began, and write down the answer.