115-Year-Old American Woman Celebrates Birthday... Who Is the World's Oldest Person Now?

The current world's oldest is Sister Lucille Langdon, who turned 118 this year
The official longest-lived record is 122 years, held by France's Jeanne Louise Calment who passed away

Tanaka Kane of Japan was born on January 2, 1903, as the seventh of nine siblings in a farming family in Fukuoka. Tanaka passed away in mid-May at the age of 119. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Bang Je-il] Bessie Hendricks, known as the oldest person in the United States from Iowa, celebrated her 115th birthday on the 10th (local time) with her family and nursing home staff.

As Hendricks' birthday celebration story became known, curiosity about the world's oldest person has grown. The current world's oldest person is Lucile Randon from France, who turned 118 this year. Randon was a Roman Catholic nun who worked as a tutor, teacher, and missionary before retiring at the age of 75. She has been living in a nursing home in Toulon, France, since 2009.

Randon became the world's oldest living person at the age of 118 years and 272 days on April 19, 2022, following the death of Kane Tanaka from Japan. She tested positive for COVID-19 a month before her 117th birthday, causing concern among those around her, but she soon recovered and remains the oldest survivor of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The previous world's oldest person to hold the record before Randon was the late Kane Tanaka from Japan. Tanaka passed away in mid-May at the age of 119. She was born on January 2, 1903, as the seventh of nine siblings on a farm in Fukuoka. The year she was born, 1903, was notable for the Wright brothers' first powered flight and Marie Curie receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics as the first woman.

The official longest-lived record belongs to Jeanne Louise Calment from France. Born in 1875, she passed away in 1997 at the age of 122. Calment, born in Arles, France, as the daughter of a tailor, married a wealthy shop owner at the age of 21. She enjoyed tennis, swimming, and opera from a young age. She rode a bicycle until she was 100 and smoked until she was 119, maintaining good health. Her husband and daughter died early, and she outlived her grandson, who died in a motorcycle accident, by 34 years. During her lifetime, she attributed her longevity to garlic, vegetables, cigarettes, red wine, and olive oil.

Meanwhile, Bessie Hendricks, the oldest person in the United States who recently celebrated her birthday, was born in 1907 and has lived through 21 presidents, two world wars, the Great Depression, the sinking of the Titanic, and the Chicago Cubs' 2016 World Series win, which came 108 years after their 1908 victory. She married her husband Paul, whom she met at a village dance party in 1930, had five children, and managed a farm. However, she was widowed in 1995, and two of her children passed away earlier. Her physician calls Hendricks a "miracle woman" and reports that she is "healthy without major illnesses." Ironically, Hendricks advised her longevity secret as "stay away from hospitals and doctors," and her family said she enjoys sweets.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.