Researchers think Memphis woman, age 114, likely nation’s oldest

Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group has listed the Memphis resident as the oldest American and second-oldest living person in the world.

The Guinness Book of World Records officially accepted Bettie Rutherford Wilson of New Albany, Miss., on Tuesday as the oldest living American. However Gerontology Research Group, which told Guinness about Wilson, found that Bolden’s Aug. 15, 1890, birthday makes Bolden about a month older than Wilson, whose birthday is Sept. 13.

Using official documents such as Census records and birth certificates, the group’s worldwide network of researchers tracks and authenticates people older than 110, called supercentenarians, said Robert Young, an Atlanta-based senior claims investigator for the gerontology group.

Young runs regular Internet searches for terms such as “110th birthday” or “112” with “oldest,” which is how he found an August 2003 story about Bolden’s 112th birthday in The Commercial Appeal.

“Finally, to guard against errors, we double-check the records,” Young said. “It’s like checking the door to see if you locked it. Check just twice, and the chances of it being locked are astronomically higher than just one time.”

Among other authenticating documents checked by the group is the 1910 U.S. Census records listing Bolden as 19. But he hesitated to authenticate her age until speaking with the family, who thought she was a year younger.

The family provided enough information to help find Bolden in the 1900 Census records, which listed her at age 9 and included her birthday.

Young said he plans to submit Bolden’s information to Guinness as well.

The women, who now live less than 100 miles apart, were both born in the rural South to parents who had been slaves.

Bolden tends to sleep most of the day at a Memphis nursing home and was too tired to comment on Wednesday. But her grandson, James Bolden, said “she would feel very good about it.”

“All I want Mama Lizzie to have is just the recognition of where she is in this life,” he said.

She doesn’t speak much, after suffering a stroke a few months ago.

“She was very sharp seven or eight years ago,” James Bolden said. “She could remember things. … I don’t even know if she knows me now.”

Meanwhile, Bettie Wilson was at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday shouting “Amen!” as a preacher blessed her new $62,000 home, paid for by a combination of federal funds and donations, in New Albany, about 70 miles southeast of Memphis. She was holding her 95-year-old son’s hand. Both are in wheelchairs.

New Albany Mayor Billy Wiseman said government officials and her family have been working to get her the home since November, before she was recognized as the oldest American.

While attendees congratulated Wilson after the ceremony, her caregiver and great-granddaughter, Della Shorter, said she wouldn’t mind not being the oldest: “She didn’t want people feeling that she was higher than anybody.”