Oldest Living Person in US Turns 115

Bessie Hendricks, the oldest living person in the United States, has celebrated her 115th birthday, KCCI reported.

The Iowa resident spent the special day together with three of her children at the care center where she lives. Her daughter, Joan Schaffer, who turned 90 the day before her mother's birthday, said, "I don't know how you put it into words. It's marvelous that we still have her."

Hendricks was born in 1907; and during her lifetime there have been 21 American presidents, two world wars, and the sinking of the Titanic.

Her son, Leon Hendricks, said that their mother is "always caring about her family. She always did that. Family came first to mom. Always."

All her children stressed what a hard worker she has been, with Schaffer saying that "her mother died when she was about 13 ... And she raised her siblings after that."

Hendricks worked as a schoolteacher during her career, the New York Post reported.

She is the fourth-oldest living person in the world, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

The oldest living person in the world is currently Lucile Randon, a French nun who is 118 years old. The group states that the oldest person ever recorded was another Frenchwoman, Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to be 122 years old and passed away in 1997.

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