The world's oldest person - who was the last American born in the 1800s - has died aged 116.
Susannah Mushatt Jones passed away last night at a nursing home in Brooklyn, New York, after falling ill 10 days ago, according to a senior consultant.
Robert Young, from the Gerontology Research Group, said Ms Jones, who
was known as Miss Susie, "was the very last American from the 1800s," NBC New York reported.
Ms
Jones, who didn't have any children, was born in a small farm town near
Montgomery, Alabama, in 1899, and was the daughter of sharecroppers and
granddaughter of slaves.
She was one of 11 siblings and attended a special school for young black girls.
After
graduating from high school she moved north in 1922 to New Jersey and
then New York, where she worked as a housekeeper and childcare provider,
according to Guinness World Records and the Vandalia Senior Center in
the New York City borough of Brooklyn, where she lived.
Jones, who retired in 1965, had said that lots of sleep is the secret
to her longevity and that she had never smoked or drank alcohol.
Family members have credited her long life to love of family and generosity to others.
Ms Jones became Guinness World Records' official oldest person when 117-year-old Misao Okawa died in Tokyo last year.
