Goldie Michelson
Goldie Michelson (August 8, 1902 – July 8, 2016), was an American supercentenarian living in Worcester, Massachusetts, who was the oldest living person in the United States of America at the time of her death. She was also recognized as being the oldest Jewish person in the world at that time.
Biography[edit]
Goldie Corash was born in 1902 in the city of Elizabethgrad in the Russian Empire. Today, the city is named Kropyvnytskyi and is located in current day Ukraine. Her parents, Max and Mary Corash, were Reformed Jews who emigrated to the United States in 1904. They settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, where Max Corash opened a dry goods store on Water Street. Goldie was two years old at the time, and along with her two brothers, Harry and Jack, grew up in Worcester, attending Classical High School.[1][2][3]
After high school, she attended Pembroke College in Providence, Rhode Island, a women's college affiliated with Brown University. After four years of study, she graduated in 1924, and then returned to Worcester, where she met and then married David Michelson, a friend of her brother's. They had one daughter, Renee, born in 1931.[4]
Both David and Goldie Michelson loved the theater, and they performed in many productions together, and attended shows in New York City regularly. Goldie Michelson taught theater in local community settings, and she had a stage built in the basement of their home for childrens' performances. She was also a strong financial supporter of the theater program for Clark University, where she earned a master's degree in sociology in 1936. In 2009, she donated funds to refurbish the Little Center at Clark, including the campus theater, which was then renamed Michelson Theater. She also endowed the David and Goldie Michelson Drama Fund, which supports drama programs at Clark.[5][6]
Michelson was active in the Jewish community throughout her life, volunteering for a variety of organizations including the National Council of Jewish Women, and Hadassah, the Brandeis Women's Group, and the Sisterhood of Temple Emanuel. She also volunteered and took a leadership role in many community organizations, serving on the board of the Worcester Mental Health Association and the Worcester City Hospital Auxiliary, and helping provide assistance to Russian immigrants arriving in Worcester in the 1980s.[3][7] [1]
David Michelson died in 1974. Goldie Michelson outlived him by 42 years, but never remarried. She died on July 8, 2016, in her home in Worcester.[3][5] She is buried in the Bnai Brith Lodge Cemetery, along with her husband, siblings and parents. [1]
Recognition as supercentenarian[edit]
When she reached age 110, Michelson received a letter of congratulations from Barack Obama, the President of the United States, for achieving the status of supercentenarian. She was later recognized as being the oldest person living in the United States after Susannah Mushatt Jones passed away on May 12, 2016.[8] She held that distinction for eight weeks, until her own death in July. Upon Michelson's death, Adele Dunlap of New Jersey became the oldest person living in the States. The oldest living American at the time was Marie-Josephine Gaudette, an Italian-American nun living in Italy. [9]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Goldie Corash Michelson". Find a Grave. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
- ↑ "Mary Zaslotsky Corash". Find A Grave. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Porter, Laura (May 18, 2012). "Goldie Michelson, 109, shares Worcester memories". Telegram.com. Worcester Telegram. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
- ↑ Friedman, Gabe (May 19, 2016). "7 Things about Goldie Michelson, the Oldest Person in America". The Schmooze. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Thebault, Reis (July 9, 2016). "Goldie Michelson, the oldest person in America, dies at 113". The Boston Globe. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ↑ Gibson, Anne (Dec 23, 2016). "Goldie Michelson's history is our history". Clark Now. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ↑ Wildes, Raquel (May 16, 2016). "One Super Supercentenarian". The Tablet. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ↑ Toussaint, Kristin (May 17, 2016). "Worcester woman is the oldest living person in the U.S." Boston Globe. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
- ↑ "Oldest American Goldie Michelson dead at 113". Times of Israel. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2019.[]
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