Oldest person in U.S. dies; Pennsylvania woman was 114

A 114-yearold Pennsylvania woman who was the oldest person in the United States has died, according to a funeral home.

The Robert D. Heath Funeral Home in Mount Union said that Delphine Gibson died Wednesday.

Lessie Brown, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, 113, is now believed to be the oldest American, according to the Gerontology Research Group in Sandy Springs, Ga.

Gibson, who had been living at a Huntingdon nursing home since 2004, when she was 100, attributed her long life to good food, her faith in God and her church.

“Frances and I are saddened to hear of the passing of Delphine Gibson, America’s oldest citizen,” said Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. “She was an incredible Pennsylvanian and she will be missed.”

Although she was blind and deaf near the end of her life, she still enjoyed singing and humming songs like “Amazing Grace,” nursing home unit manager Miranda Glover told WJACTV in February 2017.

She took no medication except for a single vitamin a day, Glover said.

Born Delphine Tucker on Aug. 17, 1903, in Ridgeway, S.C., she helped on her family’s farm until she married Taylor Gibson in 1928. The couple lived for a time in North Carolina then moved to Mount Union to work in the area’s now-historic brickyards. The couple had three children.