Misao Osaka of Japan, the world's oldest person, died peacefully on Wednesday at 117 years old.

With her demise, the title of world's oldest person is passed on to 116-year-old Gertrude Weaver of Arizona. Gerontology Research Group, which maintains records of people older than 100 years old, said Weaver was born on July 4, 1898.

Like Us on Facebook

Osaka died of heart failure and just stopped breathing. Her relatives and nursing home staff were by her side during her last moment, said Tomohiro Okada, an official at the nursing home where Osaka stayed.

Okada said that Osaka went so peacefully, it was like she just fell asleep. Osaka turned 117 on March 5 and celebrated it with the nursing home staff and her relatives and friends.

She had two daughters and a son from her marriage to Yukio in 1919. Their union lasted only 12 years because he died in 1931. Osaka had four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, reports Chosun.

At her last birthday, she was asked the secret to her long life, and her reply was "I wonder about that too."

Osaka is one of the over 58,000 Japanese aged 100 and above, of whom 87 percent are women. With Osaka gone, Japan's oldest person is a woman in Tokyo aged 115, said the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The ministry withheld her name on request of her family.

Weaver, who is aware of her new title, knows it comes with some perks. One perk she is using is asking that for her upcoming birthday when she turns 117 in July 4, which is also the birthday of the United States, she wants U.S. President Barack Obama to attend her party, reports AP.

Weaver, a former domestic worker in private homes and has four children, now lives at the Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Center in Camden, located 100 miles southwest of Little Rock. She says meeting the president is on her bucket list.

Kathy Langley, administrator of the center, said, "She's voted for him twice now and it's just her lifelong dream. We sent him an invitation to come to her birthday party last year, and we will send him another one this year."

Langley discloses that Weaver has no birth record, but her family likely chose to celebrate it on July 4 since they are patriotic. Weaver remembers celebrating it only on July 4.

Despite the absence of her birth record, the Guinness Book of Records said it may not wait for the process to name Weaver as the oldest living person because there are only five documented people who has reached 117.

Weaver is the seventh-oldest verified person of all time, said Guinness Director of Supercentenarians Program Robert Moore.

TagsMisao Osaka, oldest person, 117th birthday, world's oldest person