Europe’s oldest person dies aged 116 after crediting her long life to faith in God and avoiding booze
THE oldest person in Europe has died at the age of 116 after crediting her long life to faith in God and avoiding booze.
Giuseppina Robucci passed away at dawn on Tuesday at her father's home in the Italian town where she was born.
The supercentenarian - who was also the second oldest person in the world - was born on March 20, 1903, in Poggio Imperiale, south of Florence in Tuscany.
It was the same year that a vaccine for typhoid was discovered, the Pulitzer prize was established and the Wright brothers launched their first motorised flight.
Known locally as Nonna Peppa, Robucci had five children, nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
We are saddened by her death, but at the same time we are honoured to have had her as a fellow citizen
Alfonso D'Aloisio, mayor of Poggio Imperiale
In previous interviews she credited her longevity to her faith in God, eating healthily and avoiding alcohol.
Robucci ran a coffee bar with her husband for years, and had been named "honorary mayor" in 2012.
"We are saddened by her death, but at the same time we are honoured to have had her as a fellow citizen," Alfonso D'Aloisio, the town's mayor, told ANSA.
Robucci is No. 17 on the list of people in the world who have lived the longest lives.
Italy previously claimed the world's oldest woman.
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Emma Moran, the last living person verified to have been born in the 1800s, died on April 15, 2017 at the age of 117 years and 137 days.
Robert Young of the U.S.-based Gerontology Research Group said Robucci was the last European born in 1903.
She was just two months younger than the current oldest living person, Kane Tanaka of Japan, who was born on Jan. 2, 1903, he said.
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