FRANCE: WOMAN BELIEVED TO BE WORLD'S OLDEST PERSON DIES AGE 122

(4 Aug 1997) Natural Sound

Jeanne Calment, believed to be the world's oldest person, died today in Arles, France. She was 122.

Calment, who met Vincent Van Gogh when she was young, credited olive oil and Port wine for her longevity.

Though blind, nearly deaf and in a wheelchair, Jeanne Calment remained spirited and mentally sharp until the end.

She had spent the past 12 years in a retirement home in the southern city of Arles.

Sources close to the Arles city hall, who confirmed Mrs. Calment's death on Monday morning, gave no precise cause.

Birthdays were a chance to indulge. She said in February that she had impatiently awaited her birthday so she could "eat some chocolate and drink a little sweet wine".

Calment's doctor persuaded her to give up sweets two years ago, although she long claimed an occasional glass of Port wine - along with a diet rich in olive oil - were the keys to her long life.

The Guinness Book of World Records had listed Mrs. Calment as the oldest living person whose birth date could be authenticated by reliable records.

Born on February 21, 1875, she eventually became Arles' greatest attraction since the artist Vincent Van Gogh, who spent a year there in 1888.

She met him that year when he came to her uncle's shop to buy paints, and later remembered him as "dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable".

She gave up cigarettes in 1995, but her doctor said her abstinence was due to pride rather than health - she was too blind to light up herself, and hated asking someone to do it for her.

Calment had no direct descendants, having survived her husband, her daughter and her grandson.

At 85, she took up fencing lessons, and she was still riding a bike at 100.

At 121, Mrs. Calment gave a hint as to how she stayed sharp. "I dream, I think, I go over my life," she said, "I never get bored."

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