World's Oldest Person Dies at 116 Years, 26 Days

Jerlynn Talley, the world’s oldest person, died peacefully early Thursday at her home in Inkster at, her daughter said.

Known as “Mother Talley” among those who knew her, she was 116 years and 26 days old.

“She was ready to go home and rest,” the centenarian’s daughter, Thelma Holloway, told The Detroit News. “When she left here, she didn’t suffer. She asked the Lord to take her peacefully, and he did.”

Talley had been hospitalized for a week, but returned to her home on Saturday, the Detroit Free Press said.

Talley, who became the world’s oldest person in April after the last two known people on Earth born in 1898 died just five days apart, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

Now, New Yorker Susannah Mushatt Jones, whose 116th birthday will be July 6, will become the oldest living person, the group said.

In interviews, Talley credited her long life to healthy living and an enduring faith in God. “He knows everything,” she said recently as she prepared to celebrate her 116th birthday with a chauffeur-driven limousine ride around Inkster. “Thank Him for that.”

She considered “every day a gift from above,” and often dished out spiritual advice to young people.

“If you want to do right, follow Him,” she said recently. “I don’t care what you do for me;if it weren’t for the good Lord, you wouldn’t do it.”

A Michigan resident for 70 years, she was born May 23, 1899, in Georgia. She was married to her husband, Alfred, for 52 years. Their only child, Thelma, was born in 1937.

Talley lived alone until seven years ago when her daughter moved into assist her, and she often took fishing trips, one of her favorite past-times. She bowled until she was 104, rolling a 200 in her last game.

Her lifelong friend, Christonna Campbell, said Talley was “the jewel of our community and our church,” the New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church. Talley had been a member of the church since its beginnings a decade ago.

“She was just our heart,” Campbell, a church officer said. “... Everybody at the church cares about her and loves her. She’s really going to be missed.”

Funeral arrangements are pending. In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to the Mother Talley Scholarship Fund, which was created two years ago to help graduating high school seniors attend college. Four scholarships have been given, and the scholarship committee is taking applications for 2015 awards.

In lieu of flowers, members of Talley’s church request donations be sent to their Mother Talley Scholarship Fund, created two years ago to provide college scholarships to graduating high school seniors.