After inheriting the title of world’s oldest living person less than two weeks ago, Iowa woman Dina Manfredini died at age 115, according to her family.
The Italian immigrant, who experienced life in three different centuries, resided at a nursing home in Johnston, Iowa. She died early Monday morning, Manfredini’s granddaughter Lori Logli told the Associated Press. Logli did not share details about the cause of death.
Jiroemon Kimura, a Japanese man just 15 days younger than Manfredini, now holds her title as the world’s oldest person, Guinness World Records spokesman Robert Young confirmed.
Manfredini was listed by Guinness as the oldest living person following the death of 116-year-old Besse Cooper of Georgia on Dec. 5. She was the only Italian person verified to have reached 115 years.
Born on April 4, 1897 in Italy, Manfredini left for Iowa in 1920 with her late husband, Riccardo. When her husband suffered an injury, she worked to support her family at a food processing factory and a Des Moines ordnance plant that manufactured ammunition during World War II. Even after raising four children, she continued to clean homes on the side until she was 90 years old.
“I’m old, old lady, but I work,” she told the Des Moines Register in 2004. “Work hard. I like work.”
That two of the most recent oldest living people were female should not come as a surprise — especially in America. Just two out of 10 Americans who live to 100 or longer are male, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released last week.
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