Gozei Taba
- Full name: Gozei Taba [Japanese: 田場ゴゼイ]
- Lifespan: 1889-09-12 – 2001-01-06
- Age: 111 years, 116 days
- Birthplace: Shuri, Okinawa Prefecture , Japan
- Last residence: Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
- Application date: 2006-01-09
- Validation date: 2009-01-31
- Validation source: Robert Young
Biography
Gozei Taba was born in Shuri, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan on 12 September 1889. She was the oldest of six children, all of whom she outlived. She was schooled up to grade 2.
At the age of 24, Taba married, and would later give birth to two sons, both of whom were still alive at the time of her death. At the age of 56, she was widowed when she and her husband (who was six years older) were in a World War II refugee camp.
Taba lived nearly all of her life in poverty; she performed housework and wove hats from palm trees. She spent her later years living with her first son’s family on a pension. She was sometimes sent to the hospital for stomach-ache or pneumonia.
Taba ate anything but milk. She said that the secret to her longevity was “not fretting over things”.
Following the death of 109-year-old Kamado Kuwae on 24 April 1999, Taba became the oldest living person in Okinawa Prefecture.
Gozei Taba died in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan on 6 January 2001, at the age of 111 years, 116 days.
Validation
The supercentenarian case of Gozei Taba is verified by Robert Young and validated by the Gerontology Research Group on 31.01.2009.
