--- title: Worlds Oldest Person Jeralean Talley Dies at 116 description: The oldest person in the world, Jeralean Talley, has died at 116. canonical: https://time.com/3927065/jeralean-talley-worlds-oldest-person-dead/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-18T20:09:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:39.539Z og:title: World's Oldest Person Jeralean Talley Dies at 116 og:description: The woman in Michigan had claimed the title in April og:url: https://time.com/3927065/jeralean-talley-worlds-oldest-person-dead/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb53bb31c6b72154b/698690b6cd68482b2c094cb9/talley-2012-fishing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: talley-2012-fishing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World's Oldest Person Jeralean Talley Dies at 116 twitter:description: The woman in Michigan had claimed the title in April twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb53bb31c6b72154b/698690b6cd68482b2c094cb9/talley-2012-fishing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # World's Oldest Person Jeralean Talley Dies at 116 > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=b56b8bf1-54a0-4ecc-a546-d7d20cb0ec00&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life [Watch (HLS stream): The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/orlnwhNb.m3u8) (7:08)  _Published 2014-05-23. Here's how the people of Ikaria, Greece reach old age_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 18, 2015 8:09 PM UTC  Jeralean Talley and godson Tyler Kinloch pictured with one of the seven catfish she caught at the Spring Valley Trout Farm in Dexter, Mich., on June 16, 2012. Jeralean Talley and godson Tyler Kinloch pictured with one of the seven catfish she caught at the Spring Valley Trout Farm in Dexter, Mich., on June 16, 2012. Courtesy of Michael Kinloch  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 18, 2015 8:09 PM UTC An American woman who became the world’s oldest person earlier this year has [died](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jeralean-talley-oldest-known-living-person-dies-116-n377891?cid=sm%5Ftw&hootPostID=581757228bac37ffe7fb0045992efe88) at 116, a family member said Thursday. The death of Jeralean Talley was confirmed to NBC News by Thelma Holloway, Talley’s 77-year-old daughter. Talley’s title had been verified by the Los Angeles-based [Gerontology Research Group](http://time.com/3772979/new-oldest-living-person-jeralean-talley/), which tracks supercentenarians. The Inkster, Mich., resident celebrated her birthday on May 23 and was fêted by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in Inkster, which also gave her $116—a dollar for each year of her life. Talley was named the world’s oldest person in April after the two women who held the title before her died within the same week—Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, at 117, and Gertrude Weaver of Camden, Ark., at 116\. Friends and family told TIME in the past that Talley had many hobbies, [including](http://time.com/2873247/second-oldest-american-115-birthday/?iid=time%5Fspeed) fishing, bowling, making quilts, sewing dresses and—toward the end of her life—watching _Jeopardy!_ and _The Ellen DeGeneres Show_. A lover of comfort foods like chicken wings and Hog Head Cheese (a combination of pigs’ ears and feet), Holloway did note that her mother stayed away from butter and cheese recently, though not for health reasons; Holloway added that a doctor said Talley was in good health during a check-up the week she turned 116. Asked at the time about her secret to long life? Being kind to others and having faith in God. ### Photographing a Kiss: Long Time Love Affairs  Joseph and Dorothy Bolotin Sharon, Pennsylvania Married on June 16, 1938\. Dorothy, "I never think of it in terms of years. I think of it in terms of good years. In love, hot romance doesn’t last forever. So I would say that yes, I think love changes. I would say we’re still in love. It’s focusing, doing little things. He’s an amazing man." Lauren Fleishman  John and Sherma Campbell Star Valley, Wyoming Married on May 13, 1955\. Sherma, "When you start out, you think you love each other as much as you possibly can,but love grows—just like your inner self grows as time goes by and you have experiences.And now at this stage of the game, I love him even more. I can’t even imagine life without him." Lauren Fleishman  Jin Lin and Lai Mei Chen Brooklyn, New York Married on February 4, 1961\. Jin Lin, "We had so many things in common it was like our hearts were the same." Lauren Fleishman  de'Spagnolis Aldo de’Spagnolis and Maria Filiozzi Itri, Italy Married on October 23, 1949\. Aldo, "When I first saw her, she was 14 and I was 22.Was there a concern that she was too young for me? No! Even now I look like a young child! Yes, even now I’m still young." Lauren Fleishman  Jake and Mary Jacobs Solihull, England Married on April 27, 1948\. Mary,"Jake said to me,'Would it ever be possible for me to marry you?' And I said,'Possible but not probable!' And that’s how it was. It wasn’t likely that I would ever marry him, and he knew that. So when he went home to Trinidad, my mother and father breathed a sigh of relief. But he used to write, and he said, 'I’m thinking I might come back to England.'" Lauren Fleishman  Kissin Yevgeniy and Lyubov Kissin Brooklyn, New York Married on June 29, 1941\. Yevgeniy, "We met at a dancing party. It was in January 1938\. My friend invited me to the party, he said there would be a lot of beautiful young girls. Another cadet with high boots had approached her, but she didn’t like high boots and so she said no to him. I was the second one to approach her. I had a different uniform, but I’m still not sure if it was my uniform or my face that attracted her to me." Lauren Fleishman  Itig and Golda Pollac Brooklyn, New York Married on August 13, 1946\. Golda, "I would say love came little by little. Not right away.We were young.And he was older, but I liked him. He spoke to me in a very nice way." Lauren Fleishman  Yaakov and Mariya Shapirshetyn Brooklyn, New York Married on July 6, 1949\. Yaakov, "What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret, and I don’t reveal my secrets." Lauren Fleishman  Gino and Angie Terranova Staten Island. New York Married on September 27, 1947\. Angie, "You really don’t think about getting older. First of all, you’re aging together, and when you see a person constantly,you don’t notice big changes. Like you don’t notice, oh you’re getting a little wrinkle here and tomorrow you say it’s a little deeper. No, those are things that just happen." Lauren Fleishman ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ]. [00:18] Ikaria is a very unique island. The people are not what [00:21] you would find in other places, they have a different [00:24] lifestyle, a different way of looking at life. We might [00:28] seem like we're not getting things done, or we might [00:30] be moving slowly, but we just move at our own pace [00:32] and things do get done in the end. Being Ikaria is [00:36] an identity unto [01:38] itself. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ] People wanna [01:41] live long, it's natural. Life is a gift, and [01:46] people want to enjoy it. [01:49] [ MUSIC ] [01:52] Unfortunately, you know, Athens is not a carrier. [01:56] Athens is a big city, people are crowded, crowding [01:58] alone is a major stress. It's [02:02] difficult to live there, connected life. There is [02:06] a lot [02:20] of obesity, there is a lot of anxiety. We've started [02:25] already to be seeing the results [02:33] of stress. In Ikaria they're not crowded, [02:39] they have the water right next to [02:45] them. Just the environment where they live, it's better. [02:48] [ FOREIGN ] [ INAUDIBLE ]. [ FOREIGN ]. It's [03:02] the people of Ikaria that make the difference, the [03:05] people are really for Ikaria. In Ikaria, it's cultural, it's [03:09] an epicurean culture, they avoid stress, or cope well [03:11] with it. When they cannot avoid it, they [03:16] seek small pleasures. They live the day as it comes. [03:21] So, somehow naturally, they're doing things that we [03:23] should all be doing. [ FOREIGN ]. [03:32] I got [03:37] money from [03:59] my uncle Giannis. He said to me, come with me for [04:03] work, for one week and I will give you money, I said, [04:05] okay. I went first three days, [04:09] and then I said, I, I quit, I cannot do it anymore. I was [04:13] waking up at 6 o'clock and working until, [04:17] four, five and he was saying, come on, let's go, let's go [04:20] until night. [04:47] [ FOREIGN ]. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ]. In the [04:50] documentaries they show only old people, they don't [04:55] show nothing else, old people and the nature. They [04:58] don't show the young people, what are they doing in [05:00] their lives, you know? [ NOISE ]. [05:05] I don't think that I would live so many years as them [05:08] because, with the live that we are doing now it's, [05:14] it's bad because we drink alcohol so much. We [05:19] don't sleep good. [ NOISE ] [06:07] [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. I'm looking [06:10] forward to the people of Ikaria being able to come [06:13] together, and work for the good of their island. And [06:16] I'm also looking forward to the next generation, to see [06:19] how they turn out and where they're going to be in 20 [06:22] years time. I think it's gonna be a very interesting [06:24] journey. We like the tradition of Ikaria, the history, the [06:29] music, the culture, everything. We like it, and we trying, [06:34] I think, my generation is trying to keep it, you know, [06:37] not lose it. What I learn a lot from the older people is [06:40] their sense of continuity, their strong sense of family, [06:44] their strong sense of, my children have grown. I've [06:48] seen my grandchildren, my life is complete, I'm [06:50] fulfilled. They're not looking for new things. They're [06:54] enjoying the things that they have in the moments they [06:56] have. They're not looking for the next one, and the [06:59] next one before they've actually enjoyed the present [07:01] one. 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