Susan Younge Browne, Delaware State University’s oldest living graduate celebrates 108th birthday surrounded by community

The former teacher who came of age during segregation built a decades-long career in education and remains active and independent today.

Susan Young Browne turned 108 years old on April 24, and she walked into her own birthday party. The Delaware State University alumna, the oldest living graduate and believed to be the longest-living graduate in the school’s history, is still sharp, still articulate, and, according to her daughter, still getting behind the wheel.

As theGrio previously reported, Elizabeth Francis, who held the title of oldest living person in the United States, died at 115 in 2024, and Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Lessie Benningfield Randle reached 110 that same year, also still living independently. Delaware State University reported that the 108th birthday celebration drew more than 130 people to the Whatcoat United Methodist Church in Dover on May 2.

Born April 24, 1918, in Lincoln, Delaware, Browne was the 10th of 12 children raised on a farm between Houston and Milford. She attended school in a one-room schoolhouse, walking five miles each way in Delaware’s segregated education system. Getting an education was everything to her. “The most important things I had in mind were to get an education and become a teacher,” she said in a 2021 interview for the DSU Echo alumni publication.

After marrying and starting a family, Browne spent seven years completing her degree, graduating from the State College for Colored Students in 1945 with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education, the same institution now known as Delaware State University. She went on to build a 30-year teaching career across several Delaware schools, navigating the end of segregation in her district in 1965 before retiring in 1977. The 108th-birthday tribute notes from the Levy Court Commissioners described her as “a living bridge across generations.”

Delaware Governor Matt Meyer made a point of attending the celebration. “I came to learn from you what I need to do to live so long,” he told her. At 108, Browne remains the oldest known living resident of Dover, a distinction confirmed by the city’s mayor, Robin R. Christensen, at the event.

In retirement, Browne became a world traveler, visiting California, Hawaii, Alaska, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. She remarried in 1993 to Dr. Clifton Browne, a Delaware State social work professor, who passed away in 2001.

She is a longtime member of Whatcoat United Methodist Church and a life member of the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Alpha Pi Chapter.