Thomas Peter Thorvald Kristian Ferdinand Mortensen (August 16, 1882 – April 25, 1998), known as Christian Mortensen, was a Danish-American

supercentenarian A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until short ...

who resided in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. When he died, his age of 115 years and 252 days was the longest verified male lifespan at the time, until

Jiroemon Kimura Jiroemon Kimura (Japanese: 木村次郎右衛門, Hepburn: ''Kimura Jirōemon''; 19 April 1897 – 12 June 2013) was a Japanese supercentenarian who was the verified oldest living person between Dina Manfredini's death on 17 December 2012 and h ...

surpassed him in 2012. Mortensen was baptized in on December 26, 1882. Besides his baptismal record, other records include the 1890 and 1901 census enumerations in Denmark, and church

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...

in 1896.

Biography

Christian Mortensen was born to tailor Jens Karl Martinus Mortensen and his wife Maren Therkelsen Thybo in the village of Skårup in Fruering parish near the city of

Skanderborg Skanderborg is a town in Skanderborg Municipality, Denmark. It is situated on the north and north eastern brinks of Skanderborg Lake and there are several smaller ponds and bodies of water within the city itself, like Lillesø, Sortesø, Døj S ...

, Denmark, on August 16, 1882. He began work as a tailor's apprentice in Skanderborg at age 16, in 1898, and later took work as a farmhand. Christian Mortensen birth record

Mortensen emigrated to

Ellis Island Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United State ...

in the New York Bay area, the United States in 1903, then aged about 20 or 21 years old. He traveled while working as a tailor, but settled in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, where he had relatives. Mortensen worked various trades, including as a milkman for Borden Dairy Company, as a restaurateur, and as a factory worker for the

Continental Can Company Continental Can Company (CCC) was an American producer of metal containers and packaging company, that was based in Stamford, Connecticut."CONTINENTAL GROUP COMPANY." ''International Directory of Company Histories''. Ed. Thomas Derdak. Vol. 1. Chic ...

. He was married for less than ten years, divorced and had no children. He did not remarry. In 1950, Mortensen retired near

Galveston Bay, Texas Galveston Bay ( ) is a bay in the western Gulf of Mexico along the upper coast of Texas. It is the seventh-largest estuary in the United States, and the largest of seven major estuaries along the Texas Gulf Coast. It is connected to the Gulf of ...

. Then, 28 years later at the age of 96, he moved to a retirement home in

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city in and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of th ...

. Mortensen claimed he rode his bicycle to the Aldersly Retirement Community, telling the staff that he was there to stay. Mortensen lived at Aldersly for almost 20 years until his death in 1998. Mortensen was visited by American scientist

James Vaupel James W. Vaupel (May 2, 1945 – March 27, 2022) was an American scientist in the fields of aging research, biodemography, and formal demography. He was instrumental in developing and advancing the idea of the plasticity of longevity, and pion ...

and other longevity researchers on the occasion of his 113th birthday. He was particularly pleased with a box of Danish cigars that the researchers had brought him. Mortensen was completely blind towards the end of his life and spent much of his time in bed sleeping or in a wheelchair listening to the radio. He showed no signs of major degenerative disease or dementia. His memory and reasoning were described as largely intact. He could walk only with assistance.

Lifestyle

Mortensen enjoyed cigars in moderation and drank lots of water. He led a simple and solitary life. He avoided

red meat In gastronomy, red meat is commonly red when raw (and a dark color after it is cooked), in contrast to white meat, which is pale in color before (and after) cooking. In culinary terms, only flesh from mammals or fowl (not fish) is classified ...

but was not a vegetarian. On his 115th birthday, Mortensen gave his advice for a long life: "Friends, a good cigar, drinking lots of good water, no alcohol, staying positive and lots of singing will keep you alive for a long time."

References

External links

* Obituaries
''Dagbladet''
an

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortensen, Christian 1882 births 1998 deaths American supercentenarians Danish emigrants to the United States Men supercentenarians People from San Rafael, California People from Skanderborg Municipality

Biography

Lifestyle

See also

References

External links