[Deathwatch] Gertrude Baines, world's oldest person, 115

[Deathwatch Central]

Gertrude Baines dies at 115; the world's oldest person
Baines, whose father is thought to have been a slave, was born when
Grover Cleveland was president. Her image was splashed across the news
in November when she cast her vote for Barack Obama.

By Esmeralda Bermudez

September 12, 2009

Gertrude Baines, a former maid who was the world's oldest person --
born when Grover Cleveland was president -- died Friday morning in Los
Angeles. She was 115.

She died peacefully in her sleep at Western Convalescent Hospital,
according to the hospital's administrator, Emma Camanag. An autopsy is
planned.

"It was a great pleasure and an honor taking care of her," Camanag said
Friday. "She will be greatly missed."

The Shellman, Ga., native, whose father was believed to have been a
slave, was born April 6, 1894, when the U.S. flag had only 44 stars and
Ford's first car, the Model A, was nine years away.

Baines had outlived every one of her relatives. She married at a young
age and later divorced. Her only child, a daughter, died of typhoid at
18.

Her image -- cinnamon lips turned up in a gentle smile and thinning
hair tucked under a bright red bonnet -- was broadcast nationally in
November when Baines, then the oldest person of African descent and the
third-oldest person worldwide, cast her vote for Barack Obama as
president.

The publicity escalated two months later, on Jan. 2, when 115-year-old
Maria de Jesus of Portugal died and Baines was handed the title of
oldest living person by the Gerontology Research Group, which verifies
claims of extreme old age.

Reporters, photographers and camera crews descended on the quiet West
Adams hospital that had been the supercentenarian's home since she
broke a hip at age 107. Her feat made headlines around the globe.

Fellow senior citizens at the hospital, some approaching 100, said they
longed for her longevity.

All the while, Baines slept away in her robe, now and then breaking
from her routine of crispy bacon, Jerry Springer and church services to
take interviews. The attention, the questions, the fascination people
had with her age in her final year amused and perplexed her.

"Why all these questions?" she snapped at reporters once. "I want to
know."

The question Baines seemed to like the least was the one she got the
most. What's your secret? How have you stayed alive so long?

Each time, she shrugged her bent shoulders and referred people to God:
"Ask him."

Aside from arthritis, Baines had been in good overall health until
recently.

Growing up in Georgia while Jim Crow laws were in effect, Baines lived
through a time when blacks were blocked from voting and subject to
violent racism.

She lived in Ohio for some time and worked as a maid at Ohio State
University. She then moved to California, where she settled in Los
Angeles.

The supercentenarian lived alone with the help of a caretaker until she
turned 107.

Her walls at the hospital were a shrine of birthday cards, honorary
certificates and letters from the mayor, the governor and several
presidents. Though church volunteers, relatives and fellow senior
citizens kept her company, Baines rarely opened up to anyone other than
her favorite caretaker, Cynthia Thompson.

On Thompson's days off, Baines often refused to get out of bed.

The two shared a strong bond. Thompson helped Baines change her robe,
allowed her to wash her own face and respected her privacy. In return,
Baines laughed at Thompson's jokes and opened up about long-ago days
when she would ride to church in a horse and buggy.

She told Thompson she was not afraid to die. Only of being alone.

As she rang in her final birthday April 6, Baines was anything but
that.

More than a hundred people crowded around her at the hospital to
celebrate her birthday. Giant balloons, flowers, certificates and best
wishes from President Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger poured in.

Baines, wearing pearl earrings, took it all in and nodded in approval.

With her passing, Kama Chinen, a 114-year-old Japanese woman born May
10, 1895, is now the oldest person in the world.

Baines will be buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery.


Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary