An Arkansas woman who officially became the world’s oldest person Wednesday wants President Barack Obama to attend her 117th birthday celebration this Fourth of July. Born in 1899, Gertrude Weaver was already the oldest person in America. With the recent demise of 117-year-old Misao Okawa in Japan, Weaver became the world’s oldest person, according to the L.A.-based Gerontology Research Group (which tracks supercentenarians). Robert Moore, director of the research group’s supercentenarians program, stated that the Guinness Book of World Records still must make the final call. Weaver currently lives at the Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Center in Camden, AK. Weaver, a former domestic worker and mother of four, has experienced a lot in her 116 years, Center Administrator Kathy Langley said. Langley added that her dream is to meet the president, and has voted for him twice. The Rehabilitation Center sent Obama an invitation to come to her birthday party last year, and plan to send him another one this year. Weaver was raised in a small unincorporated community outside of Texarkana and has lived in Arkansas almost her entire life. The Gerontology Research Group used census records from 1900 (which listed Weaver as two-years-old years old) and a marriage license from 1915 that listed her age as 17 to verify that she was the oldest living American. Weaver is said to be in good health and attributes her longevity to treating others with courtesy and respect.
