America's Emma Tillman is World's Oldest Living Woman after Death of Canadian

January 20, 2007 – Julie Winnefred Bertrand, the oldest living woman in the world and oldest living Canadian, died on January 18. The 115-year-old from Quebec held the Guinness World Record as oldest living woman for just a few weeks, attaining the title on December 11, 2006. Emma Faust Tillman, a 114-year-old American, who was once a servant for actress Katharine Hepburn, not takes the title, which was held by another Afro-American woman from the U.S., Elizabeth Bolden, until she died at 116 last December. The oldest person in the world, and oldest man, is Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico.

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America's Lizzie Bolden Dies at 116 as World's Oldest Person

Oldest person now Puerto Rican man who is also oldest living U.S. veteran

December 12, 2006 – Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bolden, maybe the only person ever to be declared the "oldest living person" in the world on two occasions, died yesterday in a Tennessee nursing home at the age of 116. The new title holder is Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico, already recognized as the oldest living man in the world, who was listed yesterday by the Gerontology Research Group as being 115 years and 112 days old. Del Toro is also the oldest living U.S. veteran. (Read more below this news story.) Read more...

Read more Statistics on Senior Citizens

According to the report on Bertrand's death, Guinness stated that "on her 114th birthday, (she) prayed that 'the good Lord come down and fetch me.'"

Before Julie's death, a niece was reported as saying: "I get the impression she is now trying very hard to die and she can't figure out what she is doing wrong," The feisty supercentenarian had previously dated Prime Minister of Canada, Louis St Laurent, who took power in 1945, according to Guinness. She was French-Canadian and never married.

She became the oldest living Canadian after the death of Sister Anne Samson on November 29, 2004.

A report in Wikipedia says Bertrand was born September 16th 1891, so she reached 115 years 124 days, which places her among the 20 oldest people ever documented.

As of 2004, according to Wikipeida, when she turned 113, Bertrand was reported as being in fairly good health, dressing daily, had her hair done bi-weekly, and enjoyed a glass of wine on special occasions. Her memory was quite good, and she could recognize most of her friends and relatives.

The new title holder, Tillman, born November 22, 1892 in Gibsonville, North Carolina, was one of 23 children born to emancipated slaves.

She was born in 1892 to sharecroppers on the Faust Plantation. Alphonso, Emma`s father, was the son of a female slave and the plantation owner, Cane Faust, and, as was common in those days, he took Faust as his last name. Emma`s mother, Martha Gibson Faust, of Native American heritage, was also born into slavery. The family moved to Connecticut in 1900.

Four of Emma`s siblings lived past 100, including a sister, Ava, who died at 102 in 1983, and a brother, Eugene, who died at 108 in 1996, reports Wikipedia. Another sister died at 105 in 2005, and another one at 102 in the 1980s.

She is now the oldest living person in the U.S., oldest living woman in the world and second oldest person in the world – as far as accepted validation has determined.

On the list of Supercentenarians maintained by Robert Young of Atlanta, Georgia, with help by his associates at the Gerontology Research Group, there are six U.S. citizens in the top 12 of the oldest people on their validated list. Additionally, Del Toro, the oldest living person, is from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory but the population is not counted as U.S. citizens by the Census Bureau. He is, however, the oldest living U.S. Army veteran.

Validated Living Supercentenarians As of Jan. 19, 2007, there are 85 supercenterarians (77 females, 8 males) on the GRG list
	Birthplace	Residence	Name	Born	Age Years	Days	Race	Sex
1	Puerto Rico	Puerto Rico	Emiliano Mercado del Toro	Aug. 21, 1891	115*	151*	H	M
2	U. S. (NC)	U.S. (CT)	Emma Tillman	Nov. 22, 1892	114*	58*	B	F
3	Japan	Japan	Yone Minagawa	Jan. 4, 1893	114*	15*	O	F
4	U.S. (IN)	U.S. (IN)	Edna Parker	Apr. 20, 1893	113*	274*	W	F
5	Portugal	Portugal	Maria de Jesus	Sept. 10, 1893	113*	131*	W	F
6	U.S. (NE)	U.S. (NE)	Helen Stetter	Nov. 18, 1893	113*	62*	W	F
7	U.S. (IN)	U.S. (IN)	Bertha Fry	Dec. 1, 1893	113*	49*	W	F
8	England (UK)	New Zealand	Florence Finch	Dec. 22, 1893	113*	28*	W	F
9	Japan	Japan	Shitsu Nakano	Jan. 1, 1894	113*	18*	O	F
10	U.S. (TX)	U.S. (TX)	Arbella Ewing	Mar. 13, 1894	112*	312*	B	F
11	France	France	Marie-Simone Capony	Mar. 14, 1894	112*	311*	W	F
12	U.S. (GA)	U.S. (CA)	Gertrude Baines	Apr. 6, 1894	112*	288*	B	F

>> For full list - Gerontology Research Group – Supercentenarian Records

>> click for more of the Julie Bertrand story at Wikipedia.

>> click here for more of the Emma Tillman story at Wikipedia

>> Guinness Word Records

>> More about Centenarians at http://www.genarians.com/

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