World’s oldest woman dies aged 116

MARIA Esther de Capovilla, the world’s oldest person according to Guinness World Records, has died in Ecuador aged 116.

Her granddaughter Catherine Capovilla, aged 46, a property manager and estate agent in Miami, Florida, said she died on Sunday in a hospital in the coastal city of Guayaquil, two days after coming down with pneumonia.

Born on September 14, 1889 — the same year as Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler — Ms Capovilla was married in 1917 and widowed in 1949.

Robert Young, senior consultant for Gerontology for Guinness World Records, said Elizabeth Bolden, of Memphis, Tennessee, is the likely successor as the oldest person.

“Guinness World Records will have to make an official announcement from London,” he said.

“For all practical purposes, the next oldest person is going to be presumed to be Elizabeth Bolden. She is 116, but she was born 11 months after Capovilla.”

Ms Capovilla was confirmed as the oldest living person on December 9, 2005, after her family sent details of her birth and marriage certificates to Guinness World Records.

Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, of Puerto Rico, retains the title as oldest man. He turned 115 last Monday.

Three of Ms Capovilla’s five children — Irma, Hilda and son Anibal — are still alive, along with 12 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren, the last of whom was born in February 2003.

In her youth, Ms Capovilla liked to embroider, paint, play the piano and dance the waltz at parties, the family said. She also visited a nearby plantation, where she would drink fresh milk from donkeys as well as cows. She always ate three meals a day and never smoked or drank.

For the past 20 years, Ms Capovilla had lived with elder daughter, Hilda, and son-in-law, Martin.