Bad Month for Oldest Living

World's Oldest Person Dies, As Do Oldest Men, American

Nov. 2, 3003 - October was a bad month for old-age record holders. The oldest living woman, oldest man and oldest American all died.

> Kamato Hongo, recognized as the world's oldest person by the Guinness Book of Records, died of pneumonia on Oct. 31 in her native Japan at 116. She had held the title since March, 2002, after the death of 115-year-old American Maude Farris-Luse.

> At the end of September, Yukichi Chuganji, the world's oldest man, according to Guinness, died at 114 in southern Japan. But in mid-October a man named Sek Yi, died in Cambodia. His family said he was 122 years old but his birth date is not documented.

Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Mitoyo Kawate of Hiroshima -- 114 years old – is now the oldest person in Japan, but there has not been an official announcement by Guinness.

> Elena Slough, documented as the oldest person in the U.S., died Oct. 5 at the nursing home where her daughter died three days earlier. She was 114 or 115, according to different sources. The Gerontology Research Group said Slough was born on July 8, 1889, making her 114 years old at the time of her death. What is not in dispute is that Slough had been the oldest person in the United States since April, when 113-year-old Mary Dorothy Christian died in San Pablo, Calif..

The oldest fully authenticated age to which any human has lived is the 122 years and 164 days of Frenchwoman Jeanne-Louise Calment, who died in 1997.

The Gerontology Research Group, affiliated with the UCLA School of Medicine, maintains a Web site of the oldest people alive. Three different types of documentation - birth or baptismal certificates, marriage certificates and census data - are used to verify ages. Check out their site.