Oldest person, 115-year-old Iowa woman, dies

A photo of Dina Manfredini, who at 115 is the oldest person in the world as of Dec. 5, 2012. / CBS/KCCI/Catholic Mirror

DES MOINES A 115-year-old Iowa woman's granddaughter says the woman has died less than two weeks after inheriting the title of world's oldest person.

Dina Manfredini's granddaughter Lori Logli says Manfredini died Monday morning. Logli wouldn't elaborate on her grandmother's cause of death. CBS affiliate KCCI-TV reports she was living at a care center just north of Des Moines.

• Iowa woman is now oldest person in the world
• World's oldest person dies at 115
• World's oldest person dies at 116

Manfredini lived at the Bishop Drumm Retirement Center in Johnston. Guinness World Records confirmed she inherited the title of world's oldest living person less than two weeks ago. Bessie Cooper of Georgia previously held the title at age 116.

The Des Moines Register previously reported that Manfredini was born in Italy in 1897 and immigrated to the United States in 1921. She worked to help her family, including four children, when her husband was injured while working at a coal mine in Des Moines in the '40s. Manfredini continued to work in her 90s.

Guinness spokesman Robert Young says a Japanese man is believed to now hold the title. Jiroemon Kimura was born on April 19, 1897, which makes him just 15 days younger than Manfredini. Young says Kimura, of Kyotango in Kyoto, also is believed to be the second-oldest man in documented history.

[No_Absolutes]

Yeah, I guess that's not a title you can wear proudly for long. But spanning 3 centuries...that's pretty cool. God bless.

[rwsmith29456]

If I were the Japanese man I'd tell them to keep the title because there isn't much future in having it. Hope he makes 215.