About two months ago, the world’s oldest man, Tomoji Tanabe, died at age 113. Now, the world’s oldest woman, Gertrude Baines, who at the same time was the oldest human alive, died in Los Angeles. Ms. Baines was born in Georgia in 1894, her ancestors were brought to the US as slaves. She outlived her whole family, and became the world’s oldest woman in January, when Maria de Jesus from Portugal died. In April, Baines turned 115, and President Obama, whom she had voted for, congratulated through a letter. While enjoying a not-so-healthy diet of bacon, icecream, and fried chicken, Gertrude Baines said that she never drank, smoked, of or “fooled around”, and owed her high age to that.

The Japanese woman Kama Chinen, 114, is now the world’s oldest person.