THE world's oldest person, Susannah Mushatt Jones, has died aged 116.

Ms Jones died at a nursing home in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday night.

He said she had been ill for the past 10 days.

She had attributed her longevity to sleep, clean living and positive energy.

Ms Jones was born in a small farm town near Montgomery, Alabama, in 1899.

Video thumbnail, Video: World's oldest person dies in New York City, aged 116 - Susannah Mushatt Jones
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Her father was a sharecropper who supported his family by picking cotton.

She was one of 11 siblings and attended a special school for young black girls.

After graduation she moved to Newark, New Jersey, to work as a nanny and housekeeper.

She retired in 1965, just a few months after the Civil Rights Act took effect.

She went back to the farm in Alabama for a while, then returned to New York for good.

Family members have credited her long life to love of family and generosity to others.

She witnessed a remarkable stretch of modern history including two world wars and the rise of the civil rights movement in America.

William McKinley was in the White House when she was born in 1899 and Barak Obama is the 20th President she lived under.

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Ms Jones became the Guinness World Records' official oldest person when 117-year-old Misao Okawa died in Tokyo last year.

Mr Young said 116-year-old Emma Morano, of Italy, just a few months younger than Ms Jones, is now the unofficial world's oldest person.

The Italian woman is now the only other living soul who was around before 1900.

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