YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, May 17 (UPI) -- Charlotte Benkner, who was recognized as the world's oldest person last November before her 114th birthday, died during the weekend in Youngstown, Ohio.
The Guinness Book of Records named her the world's oldest human being after Mitoya Kawate of Japan died last fall, but she became the world's second-oldest person on April 22 when authorities discovered a Puerto Rican woman named Ramona Trinidad, who was 76 days older.
Benkner died Friday at a Youngstown Hospital at age 114.
"Whenever she was asked how to live a long life, she would say, 'Don't die,'" George O'Hare, her nephew, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Benkner was born Nov. 16, 1889, in Germany, the second oldest of 11 children. She married Karl Benkner, a German immigrant, in New York City but never had children.
