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Michigan woman has been named as world’s oldest person

22nd April 2015

A 115-year-old woman living in the Detroit area has now been named as the world’s oldest living person. Jeralean Talley of Inkster gained the title following the death of a 116-year-old Arkansas woman, according to the list compiled by the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group.

Mrs Talley was born on May 23rd 1899 in Montrose, Georgia, and later moved to Michigan in 1935, where she now lives. She is currently cared for at home by her 77-year-old daughter and lives with her family, including a great-great-grandson who is two years old. Each year, despite her age, she still goes on a fishing trip with her relatives and is said to be in no pain, although according to a friend ‘she can’t get around like she used to’.

Living by the golden rule

When asked the key to her long life, she simply refers to a greater force above and has explained how her mantra for life is to treat other people as you would like to be treated yourself. She also refers to eating lots of pork and specifically mentioned hog’s head cheese, which is mainly made with pigs’ ears and feet.

Mrs Talley also likes to watch the TV from a rise and recline chair and regularly tunes in to The Ellen DeGeneres Show or Wheel of Fortune. According to an article by TIME magazine, she has also remained active over the years, with her hobbies including sewing, using slot machines and bowling, but she now only tends to visit church on Sundays.

Her grand age drew the attention of President Barack Obama in recent years, who stated that she was part of an “extraordinary generation” when she reached her 114th birthday. She was also described by her granddaughter as being a “very solemn individual. Very quiet, very humble, very sweet.”

Image Credit: Marina Aguiar (Flickr.com)

This content was written by Emily Bray. Please feel free to visit my Google + profile to read more stories.

This news article is from Handicare UK. Articles that appear on this website are for information purposes only.