Milestone Doesn’t Faze 117-Year-Old

Sarah Knauss had a simple response when she learned she was the oldest woman alive. “So what,” the 117-year-old said. Marie-Louise Febronie Meilleur, a Canadian woman who died Thursday, was Knauss’ senior by 26 days. The Guinness Book of World Records has officially passed the mantle to Knauss. Born Sept. 24, 1880, in a small mining town, she married Abraham Lincoln Knauss, a well-known Lehigh County Republican leader, in 1901. Knauss moved into a nursing home in Allentown seven years ago. She can often be found watching golf on television or doing needlepoint. Her passions are milk chocolate turtles, cashews and potato chips. “She’s a very tranquil person and nothing fazes her,” her 93-year-old daughter, Kathryn Sullivan, said. “That’s why she’s living this long.”