William Coates (centenarian)

William Coates (June 2, 1911, claimed birth 1889 - February 23, 2004) of Maryland was a false claimant to an extremely high age, precipitating widely distributed news stories calling him the oldest man in the United States though noting his claim to have been born in 1889 had not been verified.

If this claim were correct, he would in fact have been the world's oldest person after the death of Mitoyo Kawate and its oldest man after the death of Yukichi Chuganji.

However, census research by gerontologist Robert Douglas Young revealed a William J. Coates with the same parents and six other siblings aged only 18 in the 1930 Census, the mother having been born in 1889. "The Washington Post" then found him aged 8 in the 1920 Census. [cite news
authorlink =
author = Paul Schwartzman
title = Census records cast doubt on whether man was 114
url = http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040303&slug=old03
work = The Washington Post
date = 2004-03-02
accessdate = 2008-06-28] That the nine children of Mr. Coates ranged in age from 54 to 70 at the time further buttresses the apparent exaggeration of his age from his real age of 92.

ee also

* Centenarian
* Longevity claims
* Longevity myths
* Supercentenarian

References