Two of the oldest people in the world have died on the same day.
Mary Josephine Ray, who was certified as the oldest person living in the United States, died on Sunday at the age of 114 years, 294 days.
She died at a nursing home in Westmoreland but was active until about two weeks before her death, her granddaughter Katherine Ray said.
She just enjoyed life. She never thought of dying at all,' Katherine Ray said. 'She was planning for her birthday party.'
Ray died just hours before Daisey Bailey, who was 113 years, 342 days, said L. Stephen Coles, a director of the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks and studies old people and certifies those 110 or older, called supercentenarians.
'It's very rare that two of our supercentenarians die on the same day,' Coles said.
Bailey, who was born March 30, 1896, died in Detroit, he said. She had suffered from dementia, said her family, which claimed she was born in 1895.
Ray, even with her recent decline, managed an interview with a reporter last week, her granddaughter said.
Ray was the oldest person in the United States and the second-oldest in the world, the Gerontology Research Group said. She also was recorded as the oldest person ever to live in New Hampshire.
The oldest living American is now Neva Morris, of Ames, Iowa, at age 114 years, 216 days. The oldest person in the world is Japan's Kama Chinen at age 114 years, 301 days.
Ray was born May 17, 1895, in Bloomfield, Prince Edward Island, Canada. She moved to the United States at age 3.
She lived for 60 years in Anson, Maine. She lived in Florida, Massachusetts and elsewhere in New Hampshire before she moved to Westmoreland in 2002 to be near her children.
Ray's husband, Walter Ray, died in 1967. Survivors include two sons, eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Morris, the Iowa woman now believed to be the oldest U.S. resident, lives at a care centre. Only one of her four children, a son in Sioux City, is still alive.
'She has some hearing deficiencies and a visual deficiency, but mentally she is quite alert and will respond when she feels like it and isn't too tired,' said her 90-year-old son-in-law, Tom Wickersham, who lives in the same care centre.
Wickersham said he visits his mother-in-law - who plays bingo and enjoys singing 'You Are My Sunshine' - nearly every day.
Britain's oldest twins separated after 102 years as one of the sisters dies
One half of the of the Britain's oldest twins has died - at the age of 102.
Betty Richards, who celebrated her 102nd birthday on New Year's Day, has died at her home in Feock near Truro, Cornwall.
Her identical twin sister Jenny Pelmore lives around a mile away.
The twins were delivered near Manchester on New Year's Day 1908 by a doctor who arrived on horseback.
Both sisters were widows.
Mother of two Betty, who lived in Cornwall for more than 50 years, said the secret to her long life was 'keeping moving and smiling'.
On their last birthday the sprightly twins celebrated with friends and family and Jenny, who had hurt her back in a fall, toasted it with a gin and Betty with a brandy and ginger.
At the time Betty, who only recently stopped keeping bees, admitted: 'Life is much faster now. But the only thing I don't understand is computers.'
The twins smashed odds of 700million to one by surpassing a century in age.
Since they were born half an hour apart, they were rarely apart until Betty's death.
The twins had both began to learn Spanish at night classes aged 97 and had continued to travel the world.
Last year, Betty said: 'The secret is to stay healthy. Live in the moment. Just keep smiling and keep going.'
At the time, Jenny added: 'We are still in very good health and keep mobile. We are also together which is the main thing.
'We have always been active and intend to remain so. Having a busy life and and not sitting still for too long is the key.'
The sisters were born to parents-of-five Sarah and William Jenkin in the year Henry Ford produced his first Model T car and King Edward VII was on the throne.
Their tin miner grandfather, John Jenkin, had moved to Cheshire from Cornwall in the 1890s to find work.
The family later moved to Beckenham, south London and the Midlands where Betty trained as a secretary and her sister became a kindergarten teacher.
Jenny, an accomplished painter. met her husband Hugh Pelmore, an RAF pilot, in 1941 during World War II and they married in 1947.
Her sister married Brandon Richards in 1936 and had two children, Peter and Gina, and now has two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Passed away: Betty Richards (right), seen celebrating her 101st birthday with her and twin Jenny Pelmore, has died. The sisters had barely been apart since birth
Best friends: The twins, seen as youngsters (left) and at 101, always stayed close
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