Emma Tillmann was born to sharecroppers in Sedalia, North Carolina on November 22, 1892, being one of 23 children and one of 15 children to live to adulthood. She moved to Connecticut together with her family in 1900 and was a member of her local church (the Metropolitan AME Zion Church in Hartford, Connecticut) since 1915, for a whopping 91 years in total. Tillman was the President of the Chancel Choir for 15 years and the church Secretary for 13 years. Since she could not find a job as a regular secretary due to discrimination, she had a career in catering, including baking cakes for both Katharine Hepburn's father and Jackie Robinson. Tillman's husband died in 1939, before the United States's entry into World War II, and she also outlived one of her two daughters. However, all of her Emma Tillman's siblings who moved to the Northern United States with her in 1900 ended up living beyond the age of 100. Tillman died on January 28, 2007 and was survived by her 80-year-old daughter Marjorie and also by many other younger descendants of hers. She was succeeded as the world's oldest living person by 114-year-old Japanese woman Yone Minagawa.