News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. June 22, 2011: The title of world’s oldest person has passed to an American woman after the passing of the former title older in Brazil Tuesday.
Maria Gomes Valentim, a Brazilian who held the Guinness World Record died of multiple organ failure, said Helerson Lima, a spokesman for the nursing home where she lived. Valentim would have turned 115 on July 9.
Guinness had verified that Valentim was born on July 9, 1896, in the city of Carangola in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. She lived there all her life.
Valentim is survived by four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. Her only son died at age 75 in the early 1990s.
The title now reverts to Besse Cooper from Monroe, Georgia.
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“With Maria’s passing, the title of Oldest Living Person reverts back to American Besse Cooper, age 114 years 299 days,” Guinness said.
