Emma Morano

Emma Morano  (29 November 1899 – 15 April 2017) was an Italian supercentenarian who, before her death at the age of 117 years and 137 days, was the world's oldest living person whose age had been verified, and the last living person to have been verified as being born in the 1800s. She remains the oldest Italian person ever and the second-oldest European person ever behind Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment.

Early Life
Emma Martina Luigia Morano was born on 29 November 1899 in Civiasco, Vercelli, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy, to Giovanni Morano and Matilde Bresciani, the eldest of eight children (five daughters and three sons). She had a long-lived family: her mother, an aunt and some of her siblings turned 90, and one of her sisters, Angela Morano (1908–2011), died at age 102.

Later Life
Until 1954 Morano worked at Maioni Industry, a jute factory in her town. She subsequently worked in the kitchen of Collegio Santa Maria, a Marianist boarding school in Verbania, until her retirement at the age of 75. In December 2011 she was awarded the honor of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by President Giorgio Napolitano.

Death
Morano died at her home in Verbania, Italy, on 15 April 2017 at the age of 117. At the time she was the oldest person alive and the fifth-oldest person in recorded history.[27][28] She was recognised as the last living person born in the 1800s whose age had been independently verified. Upon Morano's death, Violet Brown became the world's oldest living person.