World's oldest person passes at 115 years of age

Gertrude Baines died Friday in Los Angeles, CA at the age of 115. According to Associated Press, Baines began living in a Convalescent hospital when she broke a hip at the age of 107. At this time it is not clear how she died but her physician Dr. Charles Witt claims she most likely passed of a heart attack.

According to Associated Press,

Baines was born in Shellman, Ga., on April 6, 1894, when Grover Cleveland was in the White House, radio communication was just being developed and television was still more than a half-century from becoming a ubiquitous household presence.

She was 4 years old when the Spanish-American War broke out and 9 when the first World Series was played. She had already reached middle age by the time the U.S. entered World War II in 1941.

Throughout it all, Baines said last year, it was a life she thoroughly enjoyed.

"I'm glad I'm here. I don't care if I live a hundred more," she said with a hearty laugh after casting her vote for Barack Obama for president. "I enjoy nothing but eating and sleeping."

Her vote for Obama, she added, had helped fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing a black man elected president.

"We all the same, only our skin is dark and theirs is white," said Baines, who was black.

What is hilarious to me to me and so endearing is that in her final years Baines enjoyed eating bacon, fried chicken and ice cream. In her final years, she als watched her favorite TV program, "The Jerry Springer Show". Sigh...my dear Gertrude....Jerry Springer? Eeesh!

I'm glad this woman lived an enjoyable life.

To date the oldest person who ever lived, Coles said, was Jeanne-Louise Calment, who was 122 when she died Aug. 4, 1997, in Arles, France.