In US, world's oldest person celebrates 115th birthday

Bess Cooper celebrated her 115th birthday as the world's oldest person in Monroe, Georgia, Friday, though there was no Elvis impersonator at the party like there was last year, reported local media.

A researcher from Guinness Book of World Records was on hand at Cooper's birthday party to deliver the Tennessee native her second plaque that certifies her as the oldest person on the planet.

"We thought one was enough," her son, Sidney Cooper, 76, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a daily newspaper based in the southern US city of Atlanta, Georgia.

"She still remembers things and thinks clearly and talks," added Cooper. "But she has her good days and her bad days. Id say she sleeps about 80 percent of the time."

Born in Tennessee in 1896, Besse Cooper moved to Georgia during World War in search of work as a teacher. She married her husband Luther in 1924, and they had four children. Today she has 12 grandchildren and more than a dozen great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, reported the Journal-Constitution.

In the same year Cooper was born, the first Dow Jones Industrial Average was published, the first modern Olympic games were held and the first Ford vehicle was built.

"She never worried," says her son. Local media reported that Besse Cooper adds her secret to longevity lies in two key tenets: "I mind my own business," she said. "And I don't eat junk food."

(c) 2011 AFP