André Boite, dean known to the French, died Friday in Nice at his home, at the age of 111.
If André Boite was, in the absence of any official census, the oldest known French man, the oldest person in France remains Sister André, aged 118, who lives in Toulon in a retirement home. Since April, Sister André, born Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904, in Alès (Gard), in the south of France, had also become the probable dean of humanity with the announcement of the death of the Japanese Kane Tanaka and her 119 years old.
André Boite “had been very tired for some time and he died today at home at 2:00 p.m.,” said one of his relatives, who wishes to remain anonymous, to AFP, confirming the information from the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi who was the first to announce on Twitter the death of his oldest constituent.
Deported during World War II
André Boite, born on December 6, 1910 in Argent-sur-Sauldre, in the Cher, had managed until the age of 80 the Tourist Office of Villefranche-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes), a seaside resort near Nice, and had remained active until his last years in the tourism sector.
Deported during the Second World War, he had married the day of his 41 years Yvette, in Bougarez (Algeria). His wife died in 2017 at the age of 95. He had three children, two sons, one of whom is already deceased, and a daughter.
“He still had all his head, he remembered a lot of things that he liked to tell a lot, he also liked to sing and drink a small glass of wine”, testified this relative to AFP, speaking of a ” great little man super-adorable, very kind and of an incredible kindness”.
One of the five or six oldest known men in the world
André Boite’s known successor is a 110-year-old man living in Bouches-du-Rhône. May this one wishes to remain anonymous, explained Laurent Toussaint, one of the organizers of the forum on Internet “the French centenarians”, which counts in particular our oldest fellow-citizens. According to this specialist in centenarians, André Boite was one of the five or six oldest known men in the world.
According to Guinness World Records, the oldest man in the world has been a 112-year-old Venezuelan farmer, Juan Vincente Pérez, since May.