This file photo taken on May 14, 2016, shows Emma Morano, 116, posing for AFP photographer in Verbania, North Italy, on May 14, 2016. Emma Morano was the oldest person in the world, and the only one who has touched three centuries. She died on April 15, 2017 at 117. AFP
ROME, Italy 鈥� Emma Morano, an Italian woman believed to have been the oldest person alive and the last survivor of the 19th century, died Saturday at the age of 117, Italian media reported.
Morano, born on November 29 1899, died at her home in Verbania, in northern Italy, the reports said.
鈥淪he had an extraordinary life, and we will always remember her strength to move forward in life,鈥� said Silvia Marchionini, the mayor of Verbania, a small village of some 2,000 residents.
搁贰础顿:听
According to the US-based Gerontology Research Group (GRG), Morano ceded the crown of the world鈥檚 oldest human being to Jamaican Violet Brown, who was born on March 10, 1900.
Morano鈥檚 death, at the age of 117 years and 137 days, means there is no one living known to have been born before 1900.
Her first love died in World War I, but she married later and left her violent husband just before the Second World War and shortly after the death in infancy of her only son. That was 30 years before divorce became legal in Italy.
She had clung to her independence, only taking on a full-time carer a couple of years ago, though she had not left her small two-room apartment for 20 years.
She had been bed-bound during her latter years.
In an interview with AFP last year, she put her longevity down to her diet.
鈥淚 eat two eggs a day, and that鈥檚 it. And cookies. But I do not eat much because I have no teeth,鈥� she said in her home at the time, where the Guinness World Records certificate declaring her to be the oldest person alive held pride of place on a marble-topped chest of drawers.
鈥楢ge at a slower rate鈥�
She also refused to be taken to hospital, with the exception of a cataract operation.
Her Eyesight did become very poor and she latterly spent much of her days 聽sleeping.
But she kept her sense of humor till the end.
鈥淗ow does my hair look,鈥� she asked before blowing out the candles on her 117th birthday cake last year.
鈥淲hat impresses me most is her memory. She forgets nothing,鈥� Yamile Vergara, her nurse for over 40 years, said at the time.
鈥淗er sense of humor is her therapy鈥�.
The eldest of eight children, Morano outlived all of her younger siblings.
Robert Young, director of the Los Angeles-based GRG鈥檚 Supercentenarian Research and Database Division, said he had been following Morano 鈥榮 progress for the past seven years, calling her an example of 鈥渟uper-ageing individuals who seem to age at a slower rate than normal 鈥� maybe even a few percentage points slower, but enough to make a difference鈥�.
The world longevity record, he noted, remained with French woman Jeanne Calment, who died at 122 in 1997, having outlived both her daughter and grandson. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 superconfirmed,鈥� Young said.
Emma Morano goes into the record books as the fifth longest life ever verified.
In 1900, when Violet Brown was born, Jamaica was part of the British West Indies, so her records are from the British government, in Queen Victoria鈥檚 time.
鈥淯nless a surprise candidate comes out of the trees, she is the oldest living Victorian,鈥� said Young. CBB