A Texas woman believed to be the world's oldest person died yesterday at the official age of 114, although she had maintained she was in fact 115.
Eunice Sanborn died at 6 a.m. at her home in Jacksonville, her close pal and caretaker, David French, told the Jacksonville Daily Progress.
"The Lord just called her home," French said. "He has been using her as influential witness for 115 years."
Census records show Sanborn was born on July 20, 1896, in Lake Charles, La., according to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which titled Sanborn as the world's oldest person.
But French said Sanborn always maintained the Census Bureau had made a mistake and she was actually born in 1895. She celebrated what she supposed was her 115th birthday on July 20, Agence France-Presse reported.
"It was a very calm death. She was not uncomfortable," French said.
Sanborn became known as the world's oldest person on Nov. 4, when French nun Eugenie Blanchard died at age 114 on the French Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy, The Associated Press said.
The title now goes to 114-year-old Besse Cooper, who was born on Aug. 26, 1896, and lives in Georgia, the Gerontology Research Group said.
Walter Breuning, of Montana, also 114, now becomes the world's second-oldest person. He was born Sept. 21, 1896.
Sanborn was marital and widowed three times, according to a 2008 profile in the Houston Chronicle. Her third spouse died in 1979. She also outlived her only child, a daughter.
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