Gertrude Baines was born to former slaves in Georgia in 1894 and lived much of her life in Ohio, working as a house mother at a state college before divorcing and moving to Los Angeles, where she now lives in a nursing home, CNN reported Saturday. Her only child, a daughter, died at age 18 of typhoid fever, CNN said.

Baines, who voted for Barack Obama for president, said only God knows why she has lived so long. "Ask him. I took good care of myself, the way he wanted me to," Baines said.

The world's previous oldest woman was 115-year-old Maria de Jesus, who died this week in Portugal, Guinness World Records said, noting it must first complete a routine investigation before crowning the next world's oldest woman.