Name Myra Nicholson | ||
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Born 14 December 1894 Clark's Hill, Ballarat, Victoria
Australia Title Oldest Australian person Died September 20, 2007, Blackburn, Melbourne, Australia | ||
Myra Leviston "Nicky" Nicholson (14 December 1894 – 20 September 2007) was the oldest living Australian and the eleventh-oldest validated person in the world following the death of French doyenne Marie-Simone Capony on 15 September 2007.
Nicholson came from Blackburn, Victoria, but was born at Clarkes Hill, near Ballarat on 14 December 1894. She descended from a family with a history of longevity – many lived well into their 90s, and a distant relative, Vera Labbett, lived to 109 Her husband, Harold, died in 1971.
Nicholson shopped independently until in her 90s and was still enjoying life at age 100. She described her centennial in 1994 as "lovely".
She lived on her own until the age of 102, and she became Australia's oldest person at the age of 109, upon the death of 111-year-old Alice Lindsay, on 1 July 2004. In July 2006 she was the subject of a controversy in which she had to move out of the closing Blackburn Aged Care Facility and into her family's home.
She died on 20 September 2007 due to a mild case of bronchitis. Shortly before her death, bedridden Nicholson was quoted as saying, "I can't do anything by myself. I get sick of it".
Nicholson left one son, three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. After her death, E. Beatrice Riley, who was born in 1896, became the oldest Australian.