ROME (Reuters) - Emma Morano, who at 117 was believed to be the world’s oldest person and the last surviving child of the 19th century, died on Saturday, swearing to the end on her diet of two raw eggs a day.

Emma Morano, thought to be the world's oldest person and the last to be born in the 1800s, is seen during her 117th birthday in her house in Verbania, northern Italy November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

“She reached an incredible finish line,” said Silvia Marchionini, mayor of the town of Verbania in northern Italy where Morano lived on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

Morano, who lived 117 years and 137 days, was born on Nov. 29, 1899, four years before the Wright brothers first took to the air. Her life spanned three centuries, two World Wars and more than 90 Italian governments.

“My life wasn’t so nice,” she told Reuters last November on her 117th birthday.

“I worked in a factory until I was 65, then that was that,” she said as she sat in an armchair by her window, a white shawl over her shoulders.

In an interview with La Stampa newspaper five years ago she said her fiance had died in World War One and that she had then been forced to marry a man she did not love.

“‘Either you agree to marry me or I will kill you’,” Morano said, recalling his proposal. “I was 26. We got married.”

It was not a happy marriage. They had a son in 1937, but the baby died after just six months and the following year Morano kicked out her abusive husband.

“I separated from him in 1938. I think I was one of the first in Italy to do that.”

Morano outlived all her eight brothers and sisters, including one who died at 102. She thrived on an unorthodox, unbalanced diet.

“When I first knew her she used to eat three eggs a day. Two raw, and one fried. Today she has slowed down a bit, reducing the number to two some days because she says three can be too much,” her doctor, Carlo Bava, said last year.

“She has never eaten much fruit or vegetables. Her characteristic is that she always eats the same thing, every day, every week, every month and every year.”

Marchionini, the mayor of Verbania, told the Italian news agency AGI that her city has more than 20 people aged over 100.</s>The oldest person in the world, Emma Morano, has died at the age of 117. The single supercentenarian, who lived in northern Italy, attributed her longevity to eating three raw eggs a day and not dealing with the foolishness of men since leaving her husband way back in 1938. “I didn’t want to be dominated by anyone,” she told the New York Times in 2015. It’s thought she was the last living person to have been born in the 19th century.</s>Emma Morano, the world’s oldest person and the last one known to be born in the 1800s, has died.

The Italian was born on November 29, 1899. She held the Guinness World Record titles for oldest living person and oldest living woman.

“She joined our celebrated hall of fame with her amazing achievement when she was announced in 2016 as the oldest living female, and was officially confirmed as the last person to be born in the 1800s,” Guinness World Records said in a statement on its website.

It said it will announce a new oldest person after reviewing evidence.

Morano credited her longevity to ending her abusive marriage, and a diet of raw eggs and cookies.

“I didn’t want to be dominated by anyone,” she told The New York Times of her 1938 separation from her husband.

And despite her age, Morano had a childlike love of cookies, her doctor Carlo Bava said. So much so, she routinely hid them under her pillow so no one would eat them.

Morano became the world’s oldest living person last year after American Susannah Mushatt Jones died at age 116.

She was five years younger than Jeanne Calment, the 122-year-old who held the title for oldest person ever.</s>ROME: Emma Morano, an Italian woman believed to have been the oldest person alive and the last survivor of the 19th century, died Saturday at the age of 117, Italian media reported. Morano, born on November 29 1899, died at her home in Verbania, in northern Italy, the reports said. According to the US-based Gerontology Research Group (GRG), Morano ceded the crown of the world’s oldest human being to Jamaican Violet Brown, who was born on March 10, 1900. Morano’s death, at the age of 117 years and 137 days, means there is no one living known to have been born before 1900.</s>An Italian doctor says Emma Morano, at 117 the world's oldest person, has died in her home in northern Italy.

Dr. Carlo Bava told the Associated Press by telephone that Morano's caretaker called to say the woman had died Saturday afternoon while sitting in an armchair in her home in Verbania, a town on Lake Maggiore.

Bava said he had last paid his nearly daily call on Morano on Friday. "She thanked me and held my hand" as usual, he said.

Morano, born Nov. 29, 1899, was believed to have been the last surviving person in the world who was born in the 1800s.

Former Episcopal Bishop Frederick Borsch dies at 81; early LGBTQ advocate pushed for living wage in L.A.

Robert W. Taylor, a pioneer of the modern computer, dies at 85

David Letterman's mom, who became an unlikely star, dies at 95</s>An Italian doctor says Emma Morano, at 117 the world’s oldest person, has died in her home in northern Italy.

Dr. Carlo Bava told The Associated Press by telephone that Morano’s caretaker called him to say the woman had passed away Saturday afternon while sitting in an armchair in her home in Verbania, a town on Lake Maggiore.

Bava said he had last paid his nearly-daily call on Morano on Friday. He says “she thanked me and held my hand” as usual.

Morano, born on Nov. 29, 1899, was also believed to have been the last surviving person in the world who was born in the 1800s.</s>ROME, April 15 (Reuters) - Emma Morano, who at 117 was believed to be the world's oldest person and the last to be born in the 19th century, died on Saturday, Italian media reported.

Morano, who lived in northern Italy, was born on Nov. 29, 1899, four years before the Wright brothers first took to the air. Her life spanned three centuries, two World Wars and more than 90 Italian governments.

Italian news agencies ANSA and Agi said the death was reported by her friends and family. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)</s>ROME — Emma Morano, at 117 the world’s oldest person who is also believed to have been the last surviving person born in the 1800s, died Saturday at her home in northern Italy, her physician said.

Dr. Carlo Bava told The Associated Press by phone that Morano’s caretaker had called him to say she had stopped breathing in the afternoon while sitting in an armchair at her home in Verbania, a town on Italy’s Lake Maggiore.

Bava said he had last seen his patient on Friday when “she thanked me and held my hand,” as she did every time he called on her. While Morano had been increasingly spending more time sleeping and less time speaking in recent weeks, she had still eaten her daily raw egg and biscuits that day, he said.

A woman in Jamaica, Violet Brown, who was born in that Caribbean island on March 10, 1900, is now considered the oldest known person in the world, according to a list kept by the Gerontology Research Group. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness tweeted his congratulations to her.

Morano’s doctor, who lives a few blocks away from his patient, had been her physician for nearly a quarter of a century.

Morano, born on Nov. 29, 1899, had been living in a tidy, one-room apartment, where she was kept company by her caregiver and two elderly nieces.

“She didn’t suffer. I’m happy she didn’t suffer but passed away that way, tranquilly,” Bava said Saturday.

He said she had been her usual chatterbox self until a few weeks ago. Since then it was clear, “she was slowly fading away,” and spending nearly all day in bed, Bava said.

Last fall on her birthday, Morano declared: “I’m happy I have turned 117!”

Bava has previously told the AP that Morano lost a son to crib death when he was six months old.

Morano left her husband in 1938 because he would beat her. She “abandoned the husband in the Fascist era, when women were supposed to be very submissive,” Bava said in a 2015 interview. “She was always very decisive.”

Morano began working in a factory making jute bags when she was 16. Then she worked at a hotel, working way beyond the usual retirement age.

Beside work, she enjoyed herself. She was considered a good dancer with a beautiful singing voice in her youth.

She also defied health advice, Bava said Saturday. Some doctors had warned her against eating three eggs daily, which she did for years, but she ignored their advice.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School visited her in 2014 as part of a study into immunity to diseases, the Italian news agency ANSA said.</s>The world's oldest person has died in Italy at the age of 117, reports say.

Emma Morano, who was born on November 29, 1899, was officially the last surviving person in the world who was born in the 1800s.

She put her longevity down to genetics, being single and her diet of three eggs, two of them raw, each day for more than 90 years.

Ms Morano died on Saturday in her home in the city of Verbania, northern Italy, according to local media.

"She had an extraordinary life, and we will always remember her strength to help us move forward in life," the mayor of Verbania was quoted as saying.

She was born in the Piedmont region of Italy, the oldest of eight siblings, and officially became the world's oldest living woman when American Susannah Mushatt Jones died in May.

Ms Morano took up her unusual diet as a young woman after she was diagnosed with anaemia shortly after World War One.

More recently she had cut down to two eggs a day, along with a few biscuits.

Last year, in an interview with AFP, her doctor Carlo Bava, said: "Emma has always eaten very few vegetables, very little fruit. When I met her, she ate three eggs per day, two raw in the morning and then an omelette at noon, and chicken at dinner."

Ms Morano also credited her longevity to her decision to kick out her abusive husband in 1938.

"I didn't want to be dominated by anyone," she once said.

Her long life was also likely down to genetics - her mother lived until she was 91 and several sisters reached 100.</s>OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images(VERBANIA, Italy) — The oldest person in the world, and the last living person born in the 1800s, has died in Italy at the age of 117, according to multiple reports.

When asked about the secret to her longevity, Morano said she ate three eggs a day, two of which were raw. According to BBC, she had cut down her diet recently to two eggs a day with a few biscuits.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, the oldest person in the world is now 117-year-old Violet Bown in Jamaica, born March 10, 1900.
Emma Morano, the last person living who was born before 1900, dies at the age of 117.