The woman who was listed as the World’s oldest person, has died at the age of 116 at a Georgia nursing home. Besse Cooper died peacefully in the town of Monroe, east of Atlanta, according to her son Sidney Cooper.
Mr Cooper said his mother had been ill over the weekend with a stomach virus, but then felt better on Monday.
On Tuesday, he said she had her hair set and watched a Christmas video, but later had trouble breathing.
He said she was put on oxygen in her room and died there at about 2pm.
“With her hair fixed it looked like she was ready to go,” Mr Cooper said.
“It’s a sad day for me,” said Robert Young, Guinness senior consultant for gerontology. He recalls meeting Cooper when she was 111 and took note of her mental agility.
“At that age she was doing really well, she was able to read books,” he said.
Last year on Cooper’s 115th birthday, she celebrated with friends and relatives, enjoyed two small slivers of birthday cake and was serenaded by a musician from Nashville who sang “Tennessee Waltz.”
Mr Cooper said his family will likely hold a funeral for his mother later this week.
Cooper was the first Georgian to hold the world record. She was born in Tennessee and moved to Georgia during the First World War to look for work as a teacher.
She was declared the world’s oldest person in January. In May, Guinness World Records learned that Maria Gomes Valentin of Brazil was 48 days older. Mrs Valentin died on June 21.
A Guinness official says the title now belongs to 115-year-old Dina Manfredini, of Johnston, Iowa.
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