World's oldest living person at 114 years

American great-great-grandmother named world's oldest living person
By Nick Collins 7:00AM GMT 11 Mar 2011

Besse Cooper, a great-great-grandmother from Georgia, USA has been officially recognised as the world's oldest living person at 114 years and six months.


Besse Cooper receives a kiss from her grandson Paul

Since her birth in 1896 Mrs Cooper has seen 21 different presidents from Grover Cleveland to Barack Obama, and lived through two world wars and the great depression.
The hendecagenarian was officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest person on earth at a ceremony at her nursing home on Thursday.
Mrs Cooper was bestowed with the title after the death of Eunice G Sanborn of Jacksonville, Texas last month.
As one of eight siblings she led an active childhood, climbing trees and splashing through rivers in Sullivan County, Tennessee with her older brothers and it was that, along with good genes, that her son Sid believes is the secret of her longevity.
After moving to Georgia to teach in a school during the First World War, Mrs Cooper was married in the 1920s and remained with her husband for 40 years, though he died almost half a century ago.

The couple had four children, a dozen grandchildren and a number of great-grandchildren, one of whom has their own child.
Mrs Cooper lived alone until she was 105 and was unwilling to leave her house, but her son said her health had declined significantly in the past year and she can no longer see or hear well.
At her 113th birthday celebration in 2009, she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "I mind my business and I don't eat junk food."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8375207/American-great-great-grandmother-named-worlds-oldest-living-person.html

and she still doesn't look that old