Maude Farris-Luse

Maude Farris-Luse (January 21, 1887 – March 18, 2002), later known as Maud Luse, was an American supercentenarian. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, she was the oldest person in the world from June 2001 until her death nine months later, at age 115 years, 56 days. She outlived two husbands and six of her seven children.

Birth, marriage and family
Maude Farris was born in Morley, Michigan on January 21, 1887. She married Jason Farris, a farmer and laborer, in 1903. She was 16, he was 23. They lived in Angola, Indiana initially, later moving to Coldwater, Michigan in 1923. They had seven children. It was in Angola that she first saw an automobile. According to the AP, over the years, she worked as a factory clerk, a hotel maid, a baker and a restaurant cook, retiring in her 70s. Her husband, Jason Farris, died at age 72 in 1951. Her subsequent marriage to Walter Luse lasted only three years, ending with his death. In her later years she was known as Maud Luse, having changed it legally.

Supercentenarian years
In 1997, at the age of 110, Luse wrote a letter to Jeanne Calment, the oldest person whose age has ever been validated. Calment died that same year, at age 122. With the death of Marie Brémont on June 6, 2001, Guinness editors declared Luse the world's oldest person on June 23, 2001. In the absence of any birth certificate, they authenticated her age using U.S. Census Bureau records and her 1903 marriage license. On March 28, 2002, Luse died of pneumonia at 115, having outlived six of her seven children. The seventh died the following year, in 2003.

Legacy
Farris-Luse holds the record as the oldest person ever from the state of Michigan.