Jamaican supercentenarian Violet Mosse-Brown is now the world’s oldest human, according to the US-based Gerontology Research Group (GRG),
Brown, who was born on March 10, 1900, on the same premises where she still lives for 117 years, Duanvale, Trelawny, Jamaica, became the eldest person alive after the passing of Italian Emma Morano on Saturday, April 15, 2017, at the age of 117. Morano was born on November 29, 1899.
Violet Mosse-Brown has children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren that live in Jamaica, the United States, Europe, and Africa.
On Brown’s 115th birthday, The Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth the 2nd, sent her a plaque of recognition for reaching this phenomenal milestone Affectionately called Aunty V, as the oldest person in Jamaica as well as the Caribbean, she is also the oldest living person with the oldest child alive and has also made history by this fact.
The World Genealogy Research Group are consultants for the Guinness World Book of Records since the year 2000. The organization adjudicates and authenticates documents of the world’s oldest persons and identifies candidates for the title.
Life of Violet Brown
In her early life, she worked as a plantation worker cutting cane for her masters, also working as a maid in their homes, according to the Violet Moss Foundation. Aunt V was Baptized over 100 years ago at age 13 in the Trittonvile Baptist church in the Duanvale district of Trelawny. She was raised in the Christian faith.
In later years she purchased her own property to plant sugarcane. She became an entrepreneur and cultivated her own sugarcane and also owned the only bread depot in the district. Back then, the donkey was their only means of transporting goods to market or carried it on their heads to sell so she could provide for her family.
Walking from Duanvale to Brown’s Town and back took two days. She even carried shingle on her head from the mountain to assist in the reroofing of the Methodist Church which housed her school with the aid of her classmates after it was damaged.
Despite the hardships of life back then she managed to raise and provide for her children. A community activist all her life, she was a music teacher and seamstress for the community. She became the organist, choir mistress and Secretary of the church and served the church for over 80 years.
She married Augustus Gaynor Brown the Cemetery Keeper. Part of his duties was to document the burials in the Duanvale Cemetery. After his death in 1997, she took over his functions and became the record keeper. At her 115th birthday celebration, the Mayor referred to her record keeping as meticulous and exemplary. This is the responsibility of Parish Council.
She actually kept the records and still has the records of those buried in the cemetery. Her method of record keeping is still used today by the parish council. The current Parish Councilor Telka Holt said, “Her record keeping method was the only one in the parish and the entire Jamaica.” Mayor Wilkinson said he and the Parish Council was extremely grateful to her for her work.
