Knotts, 92, was found dead Monday in her West Philadelphia home, one of five deaths through Thursday that the city Medical Examiner's Office determined to be heat-related.
She had air-conditioning but was not using it, her niece Chanel Broadus said. A full-time caregiver moved in - at Knotts' request - several months ago, but Knotts decided she preferred to live alone. Broadus said doctors had ruled that her great-aunt was competent to make decisions.
Moving to a senior-living situation was discussed again last week when Knotts spent a few days at Lankenau Hospital, apparently for hypertension-related symptoms, Broadus said.
First, Knotts said yes, Broadus said, but later objected that she would have to live with too many people.
"She was like, 'No, no. I don't want to leave my home. This is my home. I can take care of myself. Just come and see me.' That is all she would say," said Broadus, her only relative in the city.
Knotts' younger sister - Broadus' grandmother - would come up from Delaware to take her shopping. "She loved Lord & Taylor," said Broadus, who baked Knotts a lemon cake a few weeks ago and delivered groceries and a requested cheesesteak last week.
Knotts' husband died more than 25 years ago, and her only child died last year, said Broadus, adding that her aunt had lived in the same two-story, three-bedroom house in the 100 block of North 61st Street since she was a young woman. Nurses visited several times a week on weekdays, and Meals on Wheels and the family delivered food.
Relatives urged Knotts to sleep in a bedroom with air-conditioning, a queen-size bed, a rocking chair, and cable television - The Young and the Restless was her favorite soap - but she preferred a bedroom with a ceiling fan, Broadus said.
