Barbados Today

A Jamaican woman, Violet Mosse Brown, has made history as the oldest person in the world following the death of Italian Emma Morano, on Saturday.

Morano was born on November 29, 1899.

Mosse Brown, also known as Aunt V, who lives in the northern parish of Trelawny, is 117 years old, having been born on March 10, 1900.

The Jamaica Observer reports that her eldest child, Harold Fairweather, at age 96, is said to be the world’s oldest living person with a parent also alive.

The US-based Gerontology Research Group (GRG) says in 1900, when Mosse Brown was born, Jamaica was part of the British West Indies, so her records are from the British government, in Queen Victoria’s time.

“Unless a surprise candidate comes out of the trees, she is the oldest living Victorian,” Robert Young, director of the Los Angeles-based GRG’s Supercentenarian Research and Database Division told AFP.

The previous oldest living person, Morano, died at her home in Verbania, northern Italy as the last survivor of the 19th century.

The world longevity record, Young noted, remained with French woman Jeanne Calment, who died at 122 in 1997, having outlived both her daughter and grandson.

A supercentenarian is someone who has lived to or passed their 110th birthday.

There are estimated to be 300–450 living supercentenarians in the world, though only 50 verified cases are known.