December 22, 2017
For the second time in 2017, New Jersey said goodbye to one of the oldest people in the state, the country and the world.
Mamie Tarver, affectionately known as "Mamie Prayer," died Tuesday at her Cranford nursing home at the age 110 years old, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Tarver was born in Alabama on April 18, 1907, to a white mother and an African-American father. She later moved to Newark before settling long-term in Cranford, where she was a professional domestic worker.
She and husband Peter Tarver had eight children together, who went on to have 25 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren.
On her 106th birthday in 2016, Tarver was visited by former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
Notably, Tarver took no medication even at her advanced age.
In February, the oldest woman in the United States, Adele Dunlap, died in Pittstown at the age of 113. Her title was passed on to 113-year-old Delphine Gibson of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.
Worldwide, the oldest living person is 117-year-old Emily Morano, of Italy, who is the last living person on earth born before 1900.
