The world's oldest person, a woman who was born in 1894 and gained a measure of fame when she voted for Barack Obama for US president, died today at the age of 115.
Gertrude Baines died peacefully in her sleep sometime between 6am and 7am local time (1300 and 1400 GMT) at the Western Convalescent Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had spent the past decade of her life.
"She's a very dignified lady," Emma Camanag, the hospital's administrator, told Reuters. "It has truly been a blessing and an honour for us to take care of her over the last 10 years and we will greatly miss her. It's just like we lost a relative."
Ms Baines had no living relatives, Ms Camanag said, but was popular at the home and at her church, where she attended services every Sunday until she became too ill to leave her room.
Ms Camanag said parishioners at the church often visited Ms Baines, who was born on April 6th, 1894 in Shellman, Georgia, and became the world's oldest person when 115-year-old Maria de Jesus of Portugal died in January.
Japan's Kama Chien (114) is now the oldest person in the world.
Ms Baines was celebrated in the media when she voted last November for Obama, the first African American elected president of the United States.
She had only voted once previously, for John F Kennedy, and told the
Los Angeles Timesat the time that she supported Mr Obama "because he's for the coloured". She kept a signed picture of Mr Obama on her wall, the
Timesreported.
Ms Baines, who was born during the administration of Grover Cleveland, married young and later divorced. Her only child, a daughter, was born in 1909 and died of typhoid at the age of 18.
She worked as a maid in Ohio before moving to Los Angeles and lived on her own until she was well over 100.
According to the
Times, when Ms Baines was asked by reporters her secret for living a long life, she would reply "Ask God."
Reuters