Sarah DeRemer Clark was born on September 24, 1880, to Walter and Amelia Clark in Hollywood, Pennsylvania. She married Abraham Lincoln Knauss in 1901; originally a tanner, who became a prominent Lehigh County, PennsylvaniaRepublican leader, and the recorder of deeds from 1937 until retiring in 1951. Their only child Kathryn was born in 1903 and died in 2005 at the age of 101 years. Sarah's husband died in 1965 at 86 years old. 1995, Knauss remarked that she enjoyed her life because she still had her health and could "do things." At age 116, Knauss was recognized as being the new United States nationallongevity record holder, then thought to have been Carrie C. White. In 1998, she became the world's oldest person when 117-year-old French CanadianMarie-Louise Meilleur died. Before her death, there were six living generations in her family. At 104, she moved in with her daughter Kathryn Knauss Sullivan. She died of natural causes on December 30, 1999, at the Phoebe Home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she had lived for the final nine years of her life. A member of staff of the nursing home described her as "the friendliest person she had ever met among the home's residents". Of her death, state senatorCharlie Dent, who had attended her 115th birthday party in 1995, said, "Mrs. Knauss was an extraordinary woman who pushed the outer limits of longevity. This is a sad occasion, but she certainly had an eventful life."
Verification and double-checking of her age
Robert Young of the Gerontology Research Group has previously verified Sarah Knauss's claimed age of 119 years and 97 days and concluded that Sarah Knauss was likely the age claimed. Specifically, Young found a 1900 US Census entry for Knauss that gave her age as 19, and that also explicitly gave her year and month of birth as September 1880. In addition, an August 28, 1901 marriage certificate for Sarah Knauss gives her age as 21, which roughly matches with a September 1880 birthday considering that, with such a birthday, she would have been less than one month short of age 21 at this time. Sarah Knauss is listed as age 29 in the 1910 US Census and as age 49 in the 1930 US Census —both of which also imply her birth date was in September 1880. Later research resulted in the discovery of a US Census directory of Northampton County, Pennsylvania created by Joseph H. Werner in 1891 that published the entire 1890 US Census results for this county—including Sarah Knauss and her family, who lived in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania back then. This 1891 directory states that the 1890 US Census listed Sarah Knauss as age 10, which is roughly consistent with a September 1880 birthday considering that she was just a couple of months short of her 10th birthday at the time of the 1890 US Census in June 1890. The entire entry for the Clark family in this 1891 directory included 41-year-old Walter Clark, his 33-year-old wife Amelia Clark, their 12-year-old son Charles H. Clark, their 10-year-old daughter Sarah D. Clark, and their 1-year-old son Foster E. Clark. This evidence further strengthens the case favoring Sarah Knauss indeed being born in September 1880.
