Emma Morano, last known survivor of the 19th century, dies aged 117 in Italy
In an interview last year, Emma Morano put her longevity down to her diet
Emma Morano, an Italian woman believed to have been the oldest person alive and the last survivor of the 19th century, has died at the age of 117.
Morano, born on November 29 1899, died Saturday at her home in Verbania, in northern Italy, reports said.
“She had an extraordinary life, and we will always remember her strength to move forward in life,” said Silvia Marchionini, the mayor of Verbania, a small village of some 2,000 residents.
According to the US-based Gerontology Research Group (GRG), Morano ceded the crown of the world’s oldest human being to Jamaican Violet Brown, who was born on March 10, 1900.
Morano’s death, at the age of 117 years and 137 days, means there is no one living known to have been born before 1900.
Her first love died in the first world war, but she married later and left her violent husband just before the second world war and shortly after the death in infancy of her only son. That was 30 years before divorce became legal in Italy.
