World’s Oldest Known Person Dies at Age 116

Jeralean Talley, the world’s oldest-known person, has died in Michigan 26 days after her 116th birthday, a family spokeswoman said on Thursday. Born on May 23, 1899, Talley climbed to the top of a list kept by the Gerontology Research Group, which validates the ages of the world’s longest-living people, after Gertrude Weaver died at 116 in Arkansas in April. Talley died on Wednesday night in her home in Inkster, a Detroit suburb, which she shared with her daughter, Thelma Holloway, 77, said Christonna Campbell, a family spokeswoman. “She was just a beautiful woman,” Campbell said. “We enjoyed her words of wisdom.” Talley was born in Georgia and moved to Michigan in 1935 with her husband, Alfred Talley, for his job at a Ford plant. He died in 1988. Robert Young, director of the Gerontology Research Group’s Supercentenarian Research and Database Division, said Talley’s death came as a surprise as she lived an active lifestyle.

Source/more: Reuters

David Wingate is an elder law attorney, who practices in Frederick and Montgomery Counties, Maryland. The elder law practice consists of wills, powers of attorney, living wills, trusts, asset protection and Medicaid.