Oberia Coffin

Female, Deceased Person

1883 – 2006

70

Who was Oberia Coffin?

Oberia Coffin was an American woman claimed to have been aged 122 years, 321 days at her death, which if true could have made her the world's oldest person, more than six years older than the official titleholder at the time, Elizabeth Bolden, who died aged 116 and 118 days, and even older than Jeanne Calment, the world's validated oldest person ever. No early-life documents, however, have been located.

Born in Dalby Springs, Texas, Coffin had no birth certificate and no known living relatives. Her social security records, however, listed her as born December 1, 1883. At the time of her death, Coffin was the second-oldest claimant in the United States and seventh-oldest claimant in the world overall, although officially the 'oldest person' title belonged to Elizabeth Bolden, who, unlike Coffin, has been located in the 1900 census.

Coffin was said to have been the oldest of 13 or 14 children; her father was Pink Coffin. She moved to a nursing home in De Kalb, Texas in 1992.

Coffin eventually had a leg amputated and, in her last years, was blind and deaf. A stranger, Gwendolyn Traylor, became her legal guardian when Oberia Coffin was reportedly being 'left for dead'. Coffin lived almost a decade longer.

We need you!

Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!

Born
Dec 1, 1883
Lived in
  • Texas
Died
Oct 18, 2006

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"Oberia Coffin." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/oberia_coffin>.

Discuss this Oberia Coffin biography with the community:

0 Comments

    Browse Biographies.net