World's oldest person, born in 1899, is dead

New York, May 13: Susanh Mushatt Jones, the granddaughter of slaves who held the title of “world’s oldest living person” and “the last American born in the 19th century”, has died at the age of 116, it was reported on Friday.

Born in July 6, 1899, she passed away on Thursday in a Brooklyn nursing home where she had lived for three decades.

Origilly from Montgomery, Alabama, Jones, according to RT online, was born the same year the word “automobile” first appeared in text - and lived through two World Wars and 20 US presidents.

Jones credited her long life to not drinking, smoking or partying, a family member told NBC, adding that the fresh fruit and vegetables she ate during her childhood helped maintain her health.

One of 11 siblings, she graduated from school in 1922 before working full-time picking crops with family members on the same land her grandparents farmed as slaves.

Her grandmother lived to be 117 years old, according to US census data.

She was accepted into Tuskegee Institute’s teaching programme. But as her parents could not afford the tuition fees, she left for New Jersey and then New York where she found work as a nny and housekeeper. (IANS)