María Capovilla

María Esther Heredia de Capovilla née Lecaro (September 14, 1889 – August 27, 2006) was an Ecuadorian supercentenarian, and, at the time of her death at age 116 years 347 days, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person. She was the last remaining documented person born in the 1880s. Furthermore, she is the oldest person to have lived in three centuries, and the oldest person ever of the southern hemisphere.

Biography
Born as María Esther Heredia Lecaro in Guayaquil, she was the daughter of a colonel, and lived a life among the upper-class elite, attending social functions and art classes. She never smoked or drank hard liquor. In 1917, she married a military officer, Antonio Capovilla, who died in 1949. Antonio, an ethnic Italian, was born in Pola, Austria-Hungary (now Pula, Croatia), in 1864. He moved to Chile in 1894 and then to Ecuador in 1910. After his first wife died, he married María. They had five children, three of whom were living at María's death: Hilda (81), Irma (80) and son Anibal (78). She also had twelve grandchildren, twenty great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.[1]

At age 100, Capovilla nearly died and was given last rites, but had been free of health problems since then. In December 2005, at the age of 116, Capovilla was said to be in good health and able to watch TV, read the papers and walk without the aid of a stick (though she was helped by an aide). However, Capovilla was unable physically to leave her home in the two years before, which she shared with her eldest surviving daughter, Hilda, and her son-in-law. In a media interview, Capovilla stated her dislike of the fact that women nowadays are permitted to court men, rather than the reverse.

By March 2006, however, Capovilla's health had declined somewhat, and she was no longer able to read the newspaper. Capovilla had also nearly stopped talking and no longer walked except when helped by two persons. Still, Capovilla was able to sit erect in her chair and fan herself, and had been doing 'fine' until she succumbed to a bout of pneumonia in the last week of August 2006, just 18 days before her 117th birthday.

Age records
Capovilla was verified and named the "World's Oldest Person" by Guinness World Records on December 9, 2005, thus superseding both Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper of the Netherlands (thought to be the world's oldest person from May 29, 2004 to August 30, 2005), when she died, and Elizabeth Bolden of the United States (thought to be the world's oldest person from August 30, 2005 to December 9, 2005).

Guinness noted that "María Esther de Capovilla has beaten the odds – not only to live past 116, but to have the records to prove it." Their spokesman, Sam Knights, added in a telephone interview from London that "while a lot of the time it's difficult for people to prove their age, there was no problem with any of the documents we were shown in Mrs Capovilla's case".[2] Capovilla was finally added to the Guinness website on April 12, 2006.

On February 10, 2004, Capovilla surpassed Australian Christina Cock to become the oldest person ever from the Southern Hemisphere (since Guayaquil lies below the Equator).

At the time of her death at age 116 years 347 days, she was and still is the sixth-oldest fully documented and officially validated person to have ever lived (fifth-oldest if the questionable case of Japanese man Shigechiyo Izumi is discounted).

Following her death in August 2006, her successor as oldest person was Elizabeth Bolden, the previous "titleholder". Bolden became only the second person to regain the title after losing it (Frenchwoman and all-time world recordholder Jeanne Calment was the first).