George Johnson ( supercentenarian ) George Henry Johnson ( May 1 , 1894 – August 30 , 2006 ) was , at the time of his death , California ' s oldest man and one of the last few surviving veterans of the First World War in the United States . Life . Born in Philadelphia , Johnson led a rich and eventful life – by his own accounts , he had rubbed shoulders at various times with Standard Oil tycoon John D . Rockefeller and Henry Ford , and also claimed that his grandfather was U . S . President Andrew Johnson . His father , James Edward Johnson , the manager of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway station in Philadelphia , was alleged to be the illegitimate love - child of the former President . Though unconfirmed by independent journalists or academic researchers , some people address the facts of his father James ' unusual position of authority for an African American , as well as the claim that James was present at the Gettysburg Address in 1863 , as evidence that George Johnson was truly the grandson of the 17th President , which meant that he was of mixed Caucasian and African American ancestry . He was drafted into the United States Army in 1917 , and served in the Fourteenth Company , 154th Battalion . Johnson did not see combat during the war , but served at Fort Greene , North Carolina and Fort Dix , New Jersey . After his discharge in 1919 , Johnson got married to his high school sweetheart Ida Dulany , and moved to California , first living in Fresno , where they farmed grapes for the Sunmaid cooperative . In 1927 , Johnson and his wife opened a restaurant , " George ' s Southern Kitchen " , in Berkeley , although it failed after less than a year . He moved to San Francisco in April 1930 , before they moved to Richmond , California in 1938 . They never had any children ( possibly due to an injury George had suffered as a teenager ) , and he lived in the three - story house in the ( then ) Richmond Annex he built until he died . The home , which has expansive views and the Bay is the largest in the area and was built with surplus lumber salvaged from around the Bay Area , including the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition . Later life and death . He attributed his longevity to clean living free from drugs , alcohol , and tobacco . Obituaries made much of his rich diet , which consisted of toaster waffles and sausage , but that was only in the final years of his life , in part because he detested the Meals on Wheels food and in part because he had lost his sight and the sausage and waffles were easier to consume . Following the death of the 112 - year - old Marion Higgins of Seal Beach on March 2 , 2006 , it was believed that George Johnson had become the oldest - known living Californian – a distinction he held until his own death at 112 as well . However , a woman about one month older , Gertrude Baines , was validated not long after he died , so George lost this status posthumously . The doctor performing the autopsy on Johnson remarked how physically well he was – his internal organs were said to be in the condition of someone half his age . At his 112th birthday , surrounded by distant relatives he was unable to see , he was the life of the party and his mind was still quite sharp considering it contained more than a century of details . UPI reports at the time of Johnson ' s death mistakenly stated that he was the last surviving American veteran of World War I . There were actually at least seventeen other known American World War I veterans who were still alive at the time of Johnson ' s death , though the " Los Angeles Times " reported that Johnson was the last World War I veteran in California .