116-year-old Gertrude Weaver, only days after being documented as the world’s oldest person has died in Arkansas on Monday.
Weaver had became the oldest person on earth after 117-year-old Japanese woman had died last week, as per the records maintained by the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group. Weaver had been born in 1898.
It has been confirmed by the Williams Funeral Home that Weaver had died just after 10 a.m. on Monday at the Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Center in Camden, located about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock.
Camden Mayor Marie Trisollini had a chat with Weaver last week when the supercentenarian’s roommate had celebrated her 100th birthday with Weaver.
Trisollini said “She was a really sweet lady. She was relatively perky and coherent when I talked with her before the party.” When anyone had asked for advice on how to live a long life she would say, “Use a lot of skin moisturizer, treat everyone nice, love your neighbor and eat your own cooking. Don’t eat at fast food places.”
Weaver’s age had been verified by the Research Group with the help of census records and a marriage certificate from 1915 which listed her age to be 17. There were other records which gave a probability of a birthday on April, but as those could not be confirmed, the group went with the day Weaver always celebrated her birthday, July 4th.
According to Trisollini, the nursing home and several members of the community had been planning the 117th birthday party for Weaver.
Weaver had bigger plans for her big celebration. Been born in the southwest Arkansas to sharecropper parents, she had told the staff of the nursing home that she wished to invite President Barack Obama as she had voted for him twice.
