Mae Harrington

Mae Maxwell Harrington (January 20, 1889 – December 29, 2002) was an American supercentenarian who is the oldest person in the history of the state of New York, breaking the record held since the 1920s by then Delina Filkins, also 113. She was born in Rochester and became the oldest recognized person in the United States at the death of 114-year-old Adelina Domingues. After she died at almost age 114, the oldest recognized person in the United States was fellow 113-year-old Mary Christian.

Harrington spent most of her life in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, growing up on a dairy farm. She had three sisters and a brother. Her husband, George, worked for a local highway department and died in 1959. She only had one son, who fought at Guadalcanal in World War II and died in an airplane crash during the war. After her husband's death, Harrington lived alone in Clinton until she was 100, when she decided to enter the Heritage Health Care Center in Utica, New York.

Harrington's closest living relatives were two nieces, Elizabeth Burns and Dorothy Maxwell. Burns described her as a very private person who suffered from vision and hearing problems in her later years. In her youth, Harrington had been fond of animals, dancing, and Dean Martin.

Because her age was not authenticated during her lifetime, the public recognition she was due went to another 113-year-old Mary Parr (January 29, 1889 – October 29, 2002), who was born nine days after her, dying two months before her, and her age was only validated posthumously.

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