American centenarians

Marge_Champion

Marjorie Celeste Champion (née Belcher; September 2, 1919 – October 21, 2020) was an American dancer and actress. At fourteen, she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated films. Later, she performed as an actress and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a television show based on song and dance. She also did creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries, The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio Valley.

William_Y._Chang

William Yukon Chang (Chinese: 鄭玉安) was a Chinese-American newspaper publisher and community leader who advocated for the Chinese American communities in New York City. He was the founder of the Chinese-American Times newspaper, that operated from 1955 to 1972.

Harry_Yee

Harry K. Yee (September 26, 1918 – December 7, 2022) was an American bartender from Honolulu, Hawaii, who was credited with having helped to spread tiki culture during the mid-twentieth century, both in Hawaii and in the continental United States. He invented the Blue Hawaii cocktail, and is attributed with being the first bartender to use paper parasols and vanda orchids in tiki drinks.

Dean_Caswell

Dean Caswell (July 24, 1922 – September 21, 2022) was a United States Marine Corps flying ace during World War II. He accrued seven victories in the war. He retired from military service in 1968 at the rank of colonel. He was the last living Marine Corps flying ace of World War II.

Esther_Cooper_Jackson

Esther Victoria Cooper Jackson (August 21, 1917 – August 23, 2022) was an American civil rights activist, social worker, and communist activist. She worked with Shirley Graham Du Bois, W. E. B. Du Bois, Edward Strong, and Louis E. Burnham, and was one of the founding editors of the magazine Freedomways, a theoretical, political and literary journal published from 1961 to 1985. She also served as organizational and executive secretary at the Southern Negro Youth Congress.

Lillian_Luckey

Lillian Ann Luckey (July 9, 1919 – December 13, 2021) was an American baseball pitcher who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m), 126 lb (57 kg), she batted and threw right handed.Born in South Bend, Indiana on July 9, 1919, Luckey joined the All American League in its 1946 season. She was assigned to the South Bend Blue Sox club and appeared in eight games for them.She posted a 2–4 record with a 3.44 ERA, allowing 37 runs - 21 earned - on 51 hits and 48 walks, while striking out 10 through 54 innings of work. As a hitter, she went 2 for 15 for a .133 batting average.The All American League folded in 1954, but there is a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since 1988 that honors the entire league rather than any individual figure.In July 2008, it was reported that Luckey still played golf twice a week at the age of 89. She died in Niles, Michigan, on December 13, 2021, at the age of 102.

Sally_Sweetland

Sally Sweetland (née Mueller; September 23, 1911 – February 8, 2015) was an American soprano singer and teacher. She was active in the film and recording industry during the 1940s and 50s, before moving into teaching.

Fay_McKenzie

Eunice Fay McKenzie (February 19, 1918 – April 16, 2019) was an American actress and singer. She starred in silent films as a child, and then sound films as an adult, but perhaps she is best known for her leading roles opposite Gene Autry in the early 1940s in five horse opera features. She was also known for her collaborations with director Blake Edwards on five occasions.
She also appeared on Broadway, radio, and television, having appeared on screen at ten weeks old in 1918. She was still appearing on screen at the time of her death, with her latest project opposite her son Tom Waldman Jr. in the comedy Kill a Better Mousetrap, based on a play by Scott K. Ratner, filmed in the summer of 2018 and not yet released at the time of her death. She was briefly billed as Fay Shannon.