Edna Parker The oldest living person in the world
Edna Parker is an American supercentenarian and currently the oldest recognized person in the world following the death of Yone Minagawa of Japan on August 13, 2007. Parker became Indiana's oldest living person in April 2005 and the States' all-time record holder on January 19, 2007, surpassing Mary Parr. She became the oldest living American on February 14, 2007 following the death of Corinne Dixon Taylor of Washington D.C. Parker entered the top 50 oldest verified people ever in August 2007.
Parker was born in Morgan County, Indiana. She attended Franklin High School, then took classes at Franklin College to obtain a teaching certificate. Parker taught at a two-room schoolhouse in Smithland for several years, until she married her next door neighbor, Earl Parker, in 1913. Earl died in 1938. They had two sons, both of whom she has outlived. As of February 2007, she has five grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and numerous great-great-grandchildren.
Parker currently lives in a retirement community in Shelbyville, Indiana. She is still in good health and able to walk. In April 2007, at the age of 114, she met with the second-oldest Indiana inhabitant and then-fifth-oldest living person in the world, Bertha Fry. Fry, who lives in Muncie, was 113 at the time, which set the highest combined age for a meeting of two people, at 227 years and 142 days. Parker lives in the same retirement center as Sandy Allen, the tallest woman in the world. She enjoys reading and reciting poetry, especially the works of James Whitcomb Riley.
Edna Parker
