23 January 2007

RIP: Julie Winnifred Bertrand

According to an article from the Santa Fe New Mexican:
Julie Winnifred Bertrand, believed to be the world's oldest woman at 115, died in her sleep at the Montreal nursing home where she had lived for the last 35 years, an official at the home said Friday.

Bertrand, born Sept. 16, 1891, in the Quebec town of Coaticook, passed away early Thursday morning, according to Nicole Ouellet. Her nephew Andre Bertrand told The Gazette in Montreal that she died peacefully in her sleep.

"She just stopped breathing," said Bertrand, 73. "That's a nice way to go."

Bertrand became the world's oldest woman last month, after the death of Elizabeth Bolden, a Tennessee woman born on Aug. 15, 1890, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

And the new Oldest Woman in the World? From an article in the Hartford Courant:
With the death Thursday of a 115-year-old Canadian woman, Emma Faust Tillman, 114, is now recognized as the oldest woman in the world.

She moved up on a list of validated "supercentarians" maintained by the Gerontology Research Group in Los Angeles and other organizations.

Tillman is now recognized as the second oldest person in the world and the oldest woman, according to the research group and the Guinness Book of World Records.

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The daughter of former slaves and one of 23 children, Tillman lives at the Riverside Health and Rehabilitation Center in East Hartford. She was born Nov. 22, 1892.

The oldest man in the world is currently 115-year-old Emiliano Mercado del Toro, born 21 Aug 1891 in Puerto Rico.

A supercentenarian, incidentally, is a person who is 110 years old or older. According to the Gerontology Research Group, there are currently 86 of them: 79 women and 7 men. (31 of them, including three of the men, live in the US.) The official record is held by Jeanne Louise Calment (21 Feb 1875-4 Aug 1997), of France, who was 122 years and 164 days old when she died.

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