VERBANIA, Italy (AP via NBC News) — Surrounded by relatives and friends, Italy's Emma Morano greeted with a smile the news that she, at 116, is now the oldest person in the world.
Not only that, but Morano is believed to be the last surviving person in the world born in the 1800s, with a birthdate of Nov. 29, 1899. That's just 4-1/2 months after Susannah Mushatt Jones, who died Thursday in New York, also at 116.
Journalists on Friday descended upon Morano's home in Verbania, a northern Italian mountain town overlooking Lake Major, to document her achievement, but had to wait until she finished a nap to greet her.
Morano lives in a neat one-room apartment, which she no longer leaves, and is kept company by a caregiver and two elderly nieces.
"I am doing fine —116!" she told well-wishers from her bed Friday.
"I finished school and I went to work. I used to sing. I had a beautiful voice," she added, summing up her life in a frail voice.
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