Nationality American Name Blanche Cobb Children Thirteen children | Religion Christian Ethnicity African American | |
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Born September 8, 1900 ( 1900-09-08 ) Jesup, Georgia, United States Spouse(s) Johnnie Cobb Jr. (m. 1920; wid. 1957) Died May 1, 2015, Jacksonville, Florida, United States | ||
Blanche Arrington Cobb (September 8, 1900 – May 1, 2015) was an American supercentenarian who was the world's eighth-oldest living person, the fourth-oldest living American resident and the second-oldest living Floridian behind Antonia Gerena Rivera.
Biography
Cobb was born on September 8, 1900, in Jesup, Georgia. When she moved to Folkston, Georgia, she met Johnnie Cobb Jr., whom she married December 24, 1920. After 37 years of marriage, in 1957 her husband died and Blanche promised that she would never marry another. She had 13 children, 22 grandchildren, 39 great grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren. Cobb lived in Jacksonville, Florida since 1978. Until death, she lived with her daughter Mae Shields.
Cobb credited her long life and good health to love of God, people and potatoes.
"I eat 'taters every morning," said Blanche Cobb, "I eat three baked potatoes a day, and I make and eat sweet potato pies. I just love potatoes and always have." Cobb's daughter Mae Shields said "My mother is the best mother in the world," "And, yes, she eats potatoes all the time. For her 100th birthday she made 48 sweet potato pies and every single one of them was eaten."
Shields also said her mother is a "very Christian lady who never allowed smoking, drinking, guns or card-playing in her home." Otherwise, though, her home was "always open" to family, friends and just about everyone in the neighborhood.
Shirley Thomas, Cobb's youngest child, said her mother just got a $200 sewing machine so she can sew blankets, quilts and robes to give away to elderly friends who live alone. "I know everyone thinks their mother is the greatest," Thomas said. "My mother really is a great person. She likes nothing better than doing things to help someone."
In a tribute letter for Cobb's 103rd birthday dinner, several of her great-grandchildren wrote that they will always remember how "Great-grandma still goes to church every Sunday. She puts on her dancing shoes, her nice dress and her hat, and she goes to her services. She says her favorite verse in the Bible is the whole Bible." The letter continues: "We always say that we want to live as long as Great-grandma because she seems like she is going on with no struggle. Great-grandma, we want you to know that we appreciate you more than words can express. You mean the world to us and we thank God for sharing you with us."
Cobb died at age 114 years 235 days.