Edward Bankhead

Posted: Sunday, December 01, 2002

CORINTH, Miss. (AP) - Edward Bankhead, one of the oldest men in the United States, died Tuesday in a Corinth nursing home. He was 119.

Bankhead was born the son of a slave in Noxubee County in 1883, delivered by a midwife. He had no birth certificate. His Social Security card, issued to him in 1935, was the only document that listed his age.

Bankhead was raised in Biggersville and became a farmer in eastern Mississippi. He was married twice and had 12 children from his marriages.