California-born woman is the oldest person in the world

(KTXL) – The oldest living person in the world doesn’t live in the United States but has roots in Northern California.

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Maria Branyas Morera was born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907, where her family emigrated in October 1906. She is the oldest documented person in the world at 117 years old, according to the Gerontology Research Group. 

As she celebrates her 117th birthday on March 4, 2024, Branyas Morera has been the world’s oldest living person since January 2023, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. She’s the last living person in Europe born in 1907 and the last person living in Spain in the first decade of the 1900s.

“She is very grateful for all the congratulations received and the interest that so many people have shown in her state of health,” Eva Carrera Boix, the director of Branyas Morera’s nursing home told the Guinness Book of World Records. “She is happy to be able to celebrate this special day intimately with her family and colleagues and wishes everyone a happy Monday.”

Branyas Morera is the oldest person who was born in California and the oldest validated person to ever live in Spain, according to LongeviQuest.

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She achieved the title of being the oldest California-born person following the death of Ruth Newman, who died at 113 years old on July 29, 2015, in Pebble Beach. Branyas Morera officially became the oldest validated person ever to live in Spain since April 2023.

After being born in San Francisco, Branyas Morera and her family eventually returned to Spain. They traveled to New Orleans and later departed for Olot, Catalonia, Spain in May 1915.

While aboard the family’s voyage to Spain, Branyas Morera lost her hearing permanently in one of her ears after injuring her eardrum in a fall. Toward the end of the voyage, Branyas Morera’s father died at 37 from pulmonary tuberculosis, leaving her mother to raise her and three other siblings independently.

The supercentenarian still lives in Olot, Catalonia, where she has resided at a care home since Nov. 2000, when she was 93 years old.

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After getting married in 1931, Branyas Morera had three children born in the years 1932, 1933 and 1944. As of August 2019, Branyas Morera has 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Branyas Morera, 113 at the time, tested positive for the coronavirus. She successfully recovered, becoming the oldest recorded survivor of the virus until a French nun, Lucile Randon, recovered from a case of COVID at the age of 117 in January, 2021.

Branyas Morera received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021, making her one of the oldest validated supercentenarians to do so.

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