Susannah Mushatt Jones, born in 1899, sadly died last night at a nursing home in Brooklyn, New York.
Ms. Jones, affectionately known as Miss Susie, was born in a small farming town near Montgomery, Alabama, in 1899. She was one of 11 siblings and the daughter of sharecroppers and granddaughter of slaves.
She never did have any children, and credited her outstanding longevity to plenty of sleep, no smoking, and zero alcohol.
Ms. Jones, who was the last American person born in the 1800s, took the official Guinness record of oldest person after 117-year-old Misao Okawa passed away in Japan last year.
An Italian woman, Emma Moran, who is just a few months younger than Ms. Jones, takes over the baton of the world’s known oldest person.