Last known person born in 1800s dies in Italy at 117
Emma Morano had been her usual chatterbox self until just recently
ROME— Emma Morano, at 117 the world’s oldest person, who was also believed to be the last surviving person born in the 1800s, died Saturday at her home in northern Italy, her physician said.
Dr. Carlo Bava told The Associated Press by phone that Morano’s caregiver had called him to say she had stopped breathing in the afternoon while sitting in an armchair at her home in Verbania, a town on Italy’s Lake Maggiore.
Bava said he had last seen his patient on Friday when “she thanked me and held my hand,” as she did every time he called on her. While Morano had been spending more time sleeping and less time speaking in recent weeks, she had still eaten her daily raw egg and biscuits that day, he said.
Awoman in Jamaica, Violet Brown, who was born on March 10, 1900, is now considered the oldest known person in the world, according to a list kept by the Gerontology Research Group. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness tweeted his congratulations to her.
Morano’s doctor, who lives a few blocks away from his patient, had been her physician for nearly a quarter-century.
Morano, born on Nov. 29, 1899, had been living in a tidy one-room apartment, where she was kept company by her caregiver and two elderly nieces.
“She didn’t suffer, I’m happy she didn’t suffer but passed away that way, tranquilly,” Bava said Saturday.
He said she had been her usual chatterbox self until a few weeks ago. Since then it was clear “she was slowly fading away,” and spending nearly all day in bed, Bava said.
Last fall on her birthday, Morano declared: “I’m happy I have turned 117!”
Bava has previously told the Associated Press that Morano lost a son to crib death when he was 6 months old. She left her husband in 1938 because he beat her.
She “abandoned the husband in the Fascist era, when women were supposed to be very submissive,” Bava said in a 2015 interview. “She was always very decisive.” Morano began working in a factory making jute bags when she was 16. She was later employed at a hotel, continuing to work far beyond the usual retirement age.
Beside work, she enjoyed herself. She was considered a good dancer with a beautiful singing voice in her youth.