Goldie Michelson

Goldie Michelson (née Corash, August 8, 1902 – July 8, 2016) was a Jewish Russian-American supercentenarian who lived in the United States.

Life

She was born in Yelisavetgrad (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine), Russian Empire. Her father, Max Corash, a Jewish doctor facing conscription into the Russian army, immigrated to Worcester, Massachusetts, from Russia, sending for his wife and children six months after settling in, when Goldie was two years old.

She attended Pembroke College, which is now part of Brown University, and graduated with a sociology degree in 1924. She earned a Masters degree in sociology from Clark University in 1936, after marrying real estate developer David Michelson (d. 1974). The couple had one child, a daughter named Renee.

Throughout her life, Michelson spread her love of the theater by endowing the David and Goldie Michelson Drama Fund at Clark and by teaching theater to students at Temple Emanuel in Worcester.

On May 12, 2016, upon the death of Susannah Mushatt Jones of New York, Michelson became the oldest living person in the United States.

When asked for the secret to longevity, Michelson said:

"Walking. I was a great walker – four or five miles every morning, weather permitting. I never used a car if I could walk. One of the great joys of life was when I sold my car."

Personal life and death

Michelson was married to husband David Michelson, and had two brothers, Harry and Jack.

On her 108th birthday, she received a congratulatory letter from Senator Susan Collins of Maine and was presented an American flag that had flown over the White House. She died on July 8, 2016, aged 113 years, 335 days, at her home in Worcester, a month shy of her 114th birthday.