Emma Martina Luigia Morano (29 November 1899 – 15 April 2017) was an Italian supercentenarian. She was the world's oldest living person from 13 May 2016 until her death on 15 April 2017, aged 117 years and 137 days. At the time of her death, she was also the last living person verified to have been born in the 1800s. She is the oldest Italian person ever and the third-oldest European person ever behind Jeanne Calment (1875–1997) and

Lucile Randon Lucile Randon (; born 11 February 1904), also known as Sister André (), is a French supercentenarian. At the age of , she has been the world's oldest verified living person since 19 April 2022, following the death of Kane Tanaka. She is the old ...

(1904–2023).

Early life

Emma Martina Luigia Morano was born on 29 November 1899 in Civiasco,

Vercelli Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, ...

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, to Giovanni Morano and Matilde Bresciani, the eldest of eight children (five daughters and three sons). She had a long-lived family: her mother, an aunt and some of her siblings turned 90, and one of her sisters, Angela Morano (1908–2011), died at age 102. When she was a child she moved from the Sesia Valley to

Ossola The Ossola (, also Valle Ossola or Val d’Ossola) is an area of Italy situated to the north of Lago Maggiore. It lies within the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola. Its principal river is the Toce, and its most important town Domodossola. ...

for her father's job, but the climate was so unhealthy there that a physician advised her family to live somewhere with more moderate weather, so she moved to

Verbania Verbania (, , ) is the most populous ''comune'' (municipality) and the capital city of the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. It is situated on the shore of Lake Maggiore, about north-west of Milan and ...

, on

Lake Maggiore Lake Maggiore (, ; it, Lago Maggiore ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh Maggior; pms, Lagh Magior; literally 'Greater Lake') or Verbano (; la, Lacus Verbanus) is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest l ...

, where she lived the rest of her life. In October 1926, she married Giovanni Martinuzzi (1901–1978), and her only child was born in 1937 but died when he was only six months old. The marriage was not a happy one, so in 1938, Morano separated from her husband, driving him out of the house.

Later life

Until 1954 Morano worked at Maioni Industry, a jute factory in her town. She subsequently worked in the kitchen of Collegio Santa Maria, a Marianist boarding school in Verbania, until her retirement at the age of 75. In December 2011 she was awarded the honour of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by President Giorgio Napolitano. In 2013, when asked about the secret of her longevity, she said that she ate three eggs a day, occasionally drank a glass of homemade grappa, and enjoyed a

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

sometimes, but, above all, she thought positively about the future. She was still living alone in her home on her 115th birthday. In 2016 she credited her long life to her diet of raw eggs and cookies, and to staying single. Morano became the oldest living person in Italy and Europe after the death of Maria Redaelli on 2 April 2013. On her 114th birthday, she gave a short live TV interview to a

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

show. On her 116th birthday, Morano received congratulations from

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

. She surpassed the age of Venere Pizzinato in August 2014 and Dina Manfredini (who died in the United States) in August 2015, to become the oldest Italian person ever. On 13 May 2016, upon the death of American woman Susannah Mushatt Jones, Morano became the world's oldest living person and also the last living person verified to have been born before 1900. On 29 July 2016, she was presented with a certificate from ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' recognizing her as the oldest person alive. Festivities celebrating her 117th birthday on 29 November 2016 were broadcast live in Italy.

Death

Morano died at her home in

, Italy, on 15 April 2017 at the age of 117. At the time of her death, she was the fourth-oldest person in recorded history. Upon Morano's death,

Violet Brown Violet Brown ( Mosse; 10 March 1900 – 15 September 2017) was a Jamaican supercentenarian who was the oldest verified living person in the world for five months, following the death of Emma Morano on 15 April 2017 until her own death at the age ...

became the world's oldest living person.

Notes

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