Bessie Laurena Hendricks, center, celebrated her 115th birthday in November.

 

An Iowa woman who was believed to be the oldest person in the US died this week, according to a funeral home.

Bessie Hendricks died Tuesday at the age of 115 in Lake City, Iowa, the Lampe and Powers Funeral Home said.

Hendricks was born as Bessie Laurena near Auburn, Iowa, on November 7, 1907, according to her published obituary. She was the oldest American resident at the time of her death, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

She worked as a teacher until marrying Paul Hendricks in 1930, more than a decade before the US entered World War II. After 65 years of marriage, her husband died in 1995.

Hendricks lived in her own home until the age of 102, when she moved to the senior care center and resided until her death, her obituary said.

Two of her five children preceded her in death. Hendricks’ survivors include 14 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.

“Family came first to Mom, always,” son Leon Hendricks told CNN affiliate KCCI at his mother’s 115th birthday party last November.

The oldest known person residing in the US is now 114-year-old Edie Ceccarelli, who lives in California, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

Source: edition.cnn.com