American woman dies at 116, days after becoming world’s oldest person

WASHINGTON - Days after becoming the world's oldest person, American Gertrude Weaver has died at the age of 116, US media reported.

Weaver died Monday morning of complications from pneumonia, reports said.

Weaver passed away at the Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Facility in the southern state of Arkansas, local TV station KATV reported.

Weaver was pronounced the world's oldest person on April 1 after the death of 117-year-old Misao Okawa in Japan.

Weaver would have turned 117 on July 4.

She was aware of her unique status, the center said, according to the Washington Post.

"She knew that she was the oldest person in the world, and she enjoyed that distinction greatly. She enjoyed every phone call, every letter, every comment. Everything was read to her," Kathy Langley, administrator of the Center, told the Post.

Weaver was born in 1898, the youngest of six children, and was the daughter of sharecroppers.

She once told an Arkansas newspaper that her longevity was due among other things to "treating everybody good," the Post said.

She had four children and is survived by a son who turns 94 on Tuesday, the Post said. — Agence France-Presse