RIP: Neva Morris

Neva Morris (neé Freed)
3 Aug 1895 - 6 Apr 2010

The oldest person in the United States has died. ZUI this article from Radio Iowa:

An Iowan, who became the oldest American earlier this year, died Tuesday morning. Neva Morris of Ames was 114 years old.

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Morris lived at Northcrest Community in Ames since 1999. [Her son-in-law Tom] Wickersham, who is 90, also lives at Northcrest. He said Morris had hearing and eyesight problems, but was aware of the fact she was the oldest living American.

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The Iowa Department of Aging reports the oldest Iowan now is 113-year-old Dina Manfredini of Johnston.

In addition to being the oldest person in the United States, Morris was the second-oldest person in the world at the time of her death. (The oldest person in the world is Japanese, and the now second-oldest is French.) She is the fourth supercentenarian listed by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) to die since the death of Daisey Bailey on 7 March; the other three were Jane Gilsenan of New York (8 May 1898-8 Mar 2010), Florence Poe of Missouri (24 Aug 1897-21 Mar 2010) and Antonietta Rocca-Cerizza of Italy (7 Oct 1899-29 Mar 2010).

The GRG's list of validated living supercentenarians (people who have reached their 110th birthday) currently includes 74 people (3 men and 71 women), ranging from Kama Chinen of Japan (born 10 May 1895) to Domenica Di Tomasso-Ciccheli of Italy (born 11 Feb 1900). The oldest person in the United States is now Eunice Sanborn of Texas (born 20 Jul 1896), the world's fourth-oldest person; a total of 19 supercentenarians live in the US, two of them in Iowa.