The world’s oldest person died today at a Los Angeles hospital at age 115.
Melvin Daignault wishes Gertrude Baines a happy 115th birthday at Western Convalescent Hospital in L.A. on April 6. Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times
Gertrude Baines passed away at 7:25 a.m. at Western Convalescent Hospital, director of admissions Juan Valencia confirmed. Gertrude Baines, a former maid who was born before the discovery of penicillin and was the world's oldest person, died today in Los Angeles. She was 115. She died at Western Convalescent Hospital, according to the hospital's administrator, Emma Camanag. The Shellman, Georgia, native, whose father was believed to have been a slave, was born April 6, 1894, when the U.S. flag had 44 stars and Grover Cleveland was president. She married at a young age and later divorced. Her only child, a daughter, died of typhoid at 18. Baines had outlived every one of her relatives.
With her passing, Kama Chinen, a 114-year-old Japanese woman born May 10, 1895, is now the oldest person in the world.[rc] This is an excerpt from her obituary.
Read the rest: Gertrude Baines, the world's oldest person, dies at 115
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