Naomi Whitehead turned 116 on September 26, 2026, and about ninety of her relatives filled a room in Greenville, Pennsylvania to mark it.
She is the oldest living person in the United States, and she has been since October 2024, when she took the title at 114.
The party was September 27. Between 80 and 90 family members came in from around the country, including several great great great grandchildren. Two of her grandchildren who live nearby organized it. Pennsylvania state Sen. Michele Brooks came. A great niece spent the afternoon collecting family stories.
Asked how old she was, Whitehead answered plainly.
“I think I’m 116,” she said.
She was born in 1910. She married Sylvester Whitehead in 1930. She raised three sons, Parrish, Elbert and Sylvester. Parrish died in 2011.
Six generations of one Black family were in that room, and the woman at the center of it was born when Woodrow Wilson had not yet taken office. She has outlived nearly everyone who ever told her what she could not do.
Nobody is making a documentary about her this week. Nobody put her on a magazine cover. She is the oldest person in this country and most people reading this are learning her name right now. That is worth fixing.
Happy birthday, Mrs. Whitehead.
