Weaver, an American, died in a senior’s care facility in Camden, Arkansas at 10 a.m. on Monday, April 6 of complications from pneumonia. Despite being 116 years old, staff at the Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Center said the sudden passing of Weaver was a surprise and an administrator there said the place won’t be the same without her.
“She was an amazing woman who we deeply loved, and we’re incredibly saddened by her loss,” Kathy Langley told media in Camden. Langley said that up until her final day Weaver was “alert and orientated” and that she enjoyed gaining the title of the world’s oldest person and that during her brief reign she reveled in the attention it brought.
“She knew that she was the oldest person in the world, and she enjoyed that distinction greatly,” Langley said. “She enjoyed every phone call, every letter, every comment. Everything was read to her.”
Last Wednesday, April 1, 117-year-old Misao Okawa of Japan died, passing the mantle of oldest person on to Weaver. The newest oldest person is another American, Jeralean Talley, born in the state of Georgia in 1899 but a resident of Inkster, Michigan since 1935. At the age of 115 years, 319 days old, Talley, who’s never driven a car, is 44 days older than the second oldest person, Susannah Mushatt Jones of Brooklyn.
The oldest person to have ever live was Jeanne Calment of France, who lived from February 1875 until August 1997 and died at the age of 122 years and 164 days.
