100+16 woman, 110+13 man
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bolden

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bolden, recognized as the world's oldest person, died Monday in a nursing home, the home's administrator said. She was 116. Bolden was born Aug. 15, 1890, according to the Gerontology Research Group, a Los Angeles organization that tracks the ages of the world's oldest people.

Guinness World Records recognized Bolden as the oldest person in the world in August after the death of Maria Esther de Capovilla of Ecuador, who also was 116.

Bolden died at the Mid-South Health and Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home where she had been living for several years, said the center's administrator, Charlotte Pierce. Bolden suffered a stroke in 2004, and her family said she spoke little after that and slept much of the time.

Emiliano Mercado del Toro, 115, of Puerto Rico is now expected assume the title of world's oldest person, said Robert Young, a Guinness researcher. The Gerontology Research Group lists Toro's date of birth as Aug. 21, 1891.

Family members said this year that Bolden had 40 grandchildren, 75 great-grandchildren, 150 great-great-grandchildren, 220 great-great-great grandchildren and 75 great-great-great-great grandchildren.

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JACKSON, Miss. - Moses Hardy, believed to be the second-oldest man in the world and the last black U.S. veteran of World War I, has died at age 113, family members said Friday.


Evelyn Davis, 68, one of Hardy's eight children, said her father died Thursday at a nursing home in Aberdeen. He would have been 114 on Jan. 6.

"He had been doing great. He didn't suffer and he wasn't sick — he died of old age," said Davis, of Aberdeen. "He knew everybody and those he knew, he always knew them when they came in to visit."

Robert Young, senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records, said research by his group, National Public Radio and others had been unable to locate any other surviving black WWI veterans. He said only about 10 to 12 American veterans of that war remain.

Young said Hardy had been No. 6 on Guinness' list of the world's oldest people. He said Elizabeth Bolden, at 116, of Memphis, Tenn., is believed to be the oldest person, while the oldest man on the list is 115-year-old Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico.

Del Toro is also a veteran, but Young said he had been in military training when WWI ended and was never sent overseas. He said Hardy was sent to France and apparently saw some combat.

Young said census records showed Hardy's father was born in the 1830s and that both of Hardy's parents were slaves.

"NPR did a story for Veterans Day and interviewed Moses Hardy and a daughter," Young said. "According to the NPR story, after the Civil War ended his parents took a plot of land and the family still has the land."

Eric Matthews, funeral director at Westbrook Funeral Home in Aberdeen, said services for Hardy would be Sunday.

Davis said she would remember her father's "very calm and peaceful personality. He lived for a very long time. We knew this could happen at any time."

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