Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan, the world's oldest person and the last human being on Earth born in the year 1889, died Saturday of pneumonia in Rio Piedras, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was 114 years and 272 days old.
Her death was confirmed for The Times by Dr. L. Stephen Coles of the UCLA-based Gerontology Research Group, which verifies human age claims for the Guinness Book of World Records.
Coles' group and Guinness officially recognized Iglesias-Jordan as the oldest person in the world only a few weeks ago. Ironically, she died just two weeks after the woman who had inadvertently but incorrectly held the title since November.
That was Charlotte Enterlein Benkner who was born in Leipzig, Germany, on Nov. 16, 1889, and died May 14 in Youngstown, Ohio.
Despite the recognition of Benkner as the oldest American and the oldest person in the world, Iglesias-Jordan's family refused to give up, said Robert Young, Atlanta-based senior claims investigator for the Gerontology Research Group. The family presented a baptismal certificate (written more than seven months after her birth), a 1912 marriage certificate, 1910 and 1920 census data and a birth certificate issued in 1948 as proof that she was born in Utuado, Puerto Rico, on Aug. 31, 1889 -- some 10 weeks earlier than Benkner.
After verification, both the Gerontology Research Group and Guinness designated Iglesias-Jordan as the world's oldest person in April. When Benkner died two weeks ago, they called her the "second oldest person" and detailed her incorrect tenure as "oldest person" for the six months it took Iglesias-Jordan's family to prove their case.
Coincidentally, noted Young, both women were the eldest and longest surviving (so far) of 11 children; both married, and neither had children. One sister of Iglesias-Jordan lived to the age of 103, and a brother lived to 101. She is survived by two sisters, aged 94 and 89.
"The real secret was in the genes," Young said of Iglesias-Jordan's longevity, discounting her own attribution to always cooking with pork fat.
The dubious title of world's oldest person -- an achievement of longevity but inevitably an honor of short duration -- now goes to Hendrikje Van Andel-Schipper of the Netherlands, who was born June 29, 1890.
Young said Sunday that "Aunt Hennie," the new title holder, is the first person in some time to inherit the crown at "a mere 113." She is the eldest of eight people alive worldwide who were born in the year 1890. The oldest living American, he said, is now Emma Verona Johnston of Worthington, Ohio, who also is 113.
