114-year-old U.S. woman to be world's oldest: Guinness

WASHINGTON: Gertrude Baines, a 114-year-old California resident, will likely be crowned the world's oldest woman, Guinness World Records said.

The previous oldest woman was Maria de Jesus, who died this week in Portugal at age 115, it said.

Baines - born to former slaves in a small town south of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1894 - now lives in a Los Angeles nursing home, CNN reported.

Baines appeared cheerful and talkative in November as she cast her vote for Barack Obama for president, whom she said she supported because "he's for the coloured people."

"I'm glad we're getting a coloured man in there," she said.

She earlier told the Los Angeles Times that she spends most of her time "doing nothing but eating and sleeping."

When interviewed two years ago, Baines was asked to explain why she thought she has lived so long.

"God. Ask him. I took good care of myself, the way he wanted me to," she said.

Her only child, a daughter, died of typhoid fever at age 18.

Much of her long life was lived in Ohio, where she worked as a "house mom" at a state university. She eventually divorced and traveled to Los Angeles, where she retired.

Baines will not officially be given the title until after Guinness World Records completes an investigation, the organisation said.

"Maria was crowned the world's Oldest Living Woman by Guinness World Records on 28 December upon the death of Edna Parker," the group said.

Parker - an American - was 115 years, 220 days old when she died November 26, 2008, in an Indiana nursing home, it said.