The oldest woman living in the United States died over the weekend at 114 years old. Alelia Murphy, a Harlem resident, passed away on Sunday surrounded by her loved ones, according to 1199SEIU, a health care union of which Murphy’s daughter Rose Green is a retired member. Murphy, whose daughter described her as a “gift from God,” succeeded 114-year-old Lessie Brown as the oldest living American woman; she died in January. Murphy’s record-breaking age was confirmed by the Gerontology Research Group in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Her nurse, Natalia Mhlambiso, who works with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, said she lived an active lifestyle and that Murphy, who was born in North Carolina, “grew up in the South in the days before processed food, so she ate very healthy.”
