World’s oldest person listed by Guinness World Records died on Tuesday morning in the Brazilian southeastern city of Carangola, local media said.
Maria Gomes Valentim died just weeks before of her 115th birthday from multiple organ failure, Helerson Lima of the Carangola senior home facility said.
Valentim was born July 9, 1896, in Carangola, where she lived all her life. She married Joao Valentim in 1913, who died in 1946.
Valentim was 48 days older than the previous world record holder, American Besse Cooper from Monroe, Georgia.
Valentim is survived by four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. Her son died at age 75.
Last year, Walter Breuning, believed to be the world’s oldest man, celebrated his 114th birthday. Breuning inherited the distinction of being the world’s oldest man in July 2009 when Briton Henry Allingham died at age 113. Allingham had joked that the secret to long life was “cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women and a good sense of humor,” according to the Guinness Book of World Records.