Born In 1885, World’s Oldest Woman Dies In China

A woman who Chinese officials said was 127
years old – although international authorities
never recognised the claim – has died,
relatives said on Tuesday.
Official documents said that Luo Meizhen was
born in 1885, which would make her the
oldest person ever to have lived, but she died
at the weekend after months of illness, her
son Huang Youhe said.
"She was 127 when she died, it wasn't
unexpected," her grandson Huang Heyuan
said.

Luo's declared birth date means she may
have been the oldest person in the world
when she died, ahead of Japan's Jiroemon
Kimura, who records say is 116.
But Luo's claim met with little recognition
internationally because China did not have a
reliable birth certification system until
decades after she was born.
Scepticism was further fuelled by reports of
the youthfulness of her sons, one of whom
she was said to have given birth to at the age
of 61.
According to Guinness World Records, the
oldest person ever to have lived was Jeanne
Calment of France, who was 122 years and
164 days when she died in 1997.
Luo's 1885 birth date was quoted on her
official residency permit and identity card,
both issued in recent decades, and was
confirmed by a state-sponsored research
institute in 2010.
China's official Xinhua news agency ran
reports of her 127th birthday celebrations on
its website in October, describing her as
China's oldest person.
"She was a kind person but at times had a
very bad temper, she had a strong
character," Huang Heyuan said.
Luo, who worked as a farmer all her life, and
gave birth to five children, is survived by
several great-great grandchildren in the
remote village of Longhong, in China's
southern province of Guangxi.
The village is part of Bama county, a poor
region that officials say is home to more than
80 centenarians.
Her relatives gathered in her simply furnished
brick house Tuesday to light red incense
sticks in remembrance.
Relatives said they had stored her body on a
mountain close to their home and were
waiting for an auspicious date later this
month to bury her. [AFP]