Besse Cooper, a great-great-grandmother from Georgia, USA has been formally recognized as the world's oldest living person at 114 years and six months.
Since her birth in 1896 Mrs Cooper has seen 21 dissimilar presidents from Grover Cleveland to Barack Obama, and lived through two world wars and the great despair.
The hendecagenarian was formally recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest person on earth at a ceremony at her nursing home on Thursday.
Mrs Cooper was given with the title after the death of Eunice G Sanborn of Jacksonville, Texas last month.
As one of eight siblings she led an active childhood, climbing trees and splashing through rivers in Sullivan County, Tennessee with her older brothers and it was that, along with good genes that her son Sid believes is the secret of her longevity.
After moving to Georgia to teach in a school during the First World War, Mrs Cooper was wedded in the 1920s and remains with her husband for 40 years, though he died approximately half a century ago.
