https://longeviquest.com/2025/01/old-and-famous-or-famous-for-being-old/

Old and famous… Or famous for being old?

Notoriety is an interesting concept. I remember once being asked by a succesful entrepreneur “What makes you interesting?” and I didn’t really have anything to say as I don’t consider anything that I have accomplished in life to be especially notable. I came up with some excuse/claim to fame that clearly didn’t impress him and our chance meeting ended shortly thereafter.

Some people achieve “fame” while others don’t. And exactly what the concept of “fame” constitutes is highly ambigous as it can happen by pure chance or through a life of dedicated efforts. And it should be added that many people live completely normal life that can be considered highly succesful and achieve everything they want to as fame was never anything they aimed for. For some fame is an ego boost that provides them with a sense of success and perhaps financial gain while for others it is about establishing a legacy and to be remembered for long after you have taken your final breath.

Then we have supercentenarians. Most supercentenarians become notable just for living exceptionally long and will figure in media often, especially if they have an interesting life story or “secret to longevity.” Some people (read me) are especially interested in supercentenarians and the entire concept of living an extraordinary long life. As one way to honour these individuals and also collect important data we create biographies for these individuals as it allows us to capture both interesting trivia and information that can be important for research. We can, for example, see that many supercentenarians married early in life and most had a limited number of children. There are, however, outliers like Charlotte Hughes who married in her sixties or Marie-Louise Meilleur who had 15 children.

Still, even though there are bio pages for thousands of supercentenarians now, most aren’t really famous. Of course, people like Jeanne Calment, Kane Tanaka or Sarah Knauss are famous for having lived very long lives but take a “random” 110-year-old born in the late 1800s/early 1900s and they won’t be considered famous or notable outside from their families or communities (and perhaps to supercentenarian fans). Exceptions exist, of course. Flossie Dickey gained internet fame when she turned 110 years old and was interviewed by Good Day Spokane and dropped several quotes that were found to be amusing to a lot of people. Perhaps most notable was her reply to a question on whether she was excited for her 110th birthday and she answered “Not one bit.”

However, there are a select number of supercentenarians who achieved fame in their own right and not just for being “old.” The person who immediately springs to mind is Leila Denmark, an American pediatrician who was both breaking barriers for being an early woman in medicine and who helped in the development of the whooping cough vaccine. She later authored a book on child rearing called “Every Child Should Have a Chance” and was an early proponent of objecting to cigarette smoking in pregnant women. Later in life she also became notable for continuing to practice medicine until she was over 100 years old. I am highly fond of a video report from when she was 99 years old and one could really understand that Denmark was making a difference in the lives of people.

Eileen Kramer was an Australian dancer, artist, and choreographer. (Source: Aged Care Homes)

Of course, there are other examples like artist Alphaeus Philemon Cole and his work is part of the collections of London’s National Portrait Gallery and the Brooklyn Museum, Herman Smith-Johannsen, a Norwegian who introduced cross-country skiing in North America, and Eileen Kramer, an Australian dancer and choreographer. Right now there’s also Marita Camacho Quiros who is approaching her 114th birthday and who was the First Lady of Costa Rica in the 1960s and worked to improve the living conditions of both children and poor families.

To conclude, fame is a fickle thing and while most supercentenarians gain some notoriety for being very old, only a few become famous. Perhaps that is for the best as these people were important to their friends and families for a long, long time before they became notable to other people and just because they lived exceedingly long lives they also achieved crucial feats prior to this. These people can therefore be celebrated for several reasons, both for being there for their families and communities and for having lived long lives. Some supercentenarians also achieve fame for other reasons than longevity and their efforts to better the world should be recognized.

Featured image source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9185212/Worlds-oldest-doctor-dies-at-114.html