US woman celebrates 115th birthday

MAYBE it was a lifetime of chores on the family farm that accounts for Edna Parker’s long life. Or maybe just good genes explain why the world’s oldest known person turned 115 yesterday, defying staggering odds.

Scientists who study longevity hope Parker and others who live to 110 or beyond — they’re called supercentenarians — can help solve the mystery of extreme longevity.

“We don’t know why she’s lived so long,” said Don Parker, her 59-year-old grandson. “But she’s never been a worrier and she’s always been a thin person, so maybe that has something to do with it.”

Edna Parker laughed and smiled as relatives and guests released 115 balloons into sunny skies outside her nursing home. Dressed in pearls, a blue and white polka dot dress and new white shoes, she clutched a red rose during the festivities.

Two years ago, researchers from the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University took a blood sample from Parker for the group’s DNA database of supercentenarians.

Her DNA is now preserved with samples of about 100 other people who made the 110-year milestone and whose genes are being analysed, said Dr Tom Perls, who directs the project.

“They’re really our best bet for finding the elusive Holy Grail of our field — which are these longevity-enabling genes,” he said.

Only 75 living people — 64 women and 11 men — are 110 or older, according to the Gerontology Research Group in California.

Parker, who was born April 20, 1893, was recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest of that group last August after the death of a Japanese woman.

A widow since her husband, Earl, died in 1938 of a heart attack, Parker lived alone in their farmhouse until age 100, when she moved into her son Clifford’s home. Her two sisters also are deceased. Georgia lived to be 99, while her sister Opal was 88 when she died.