World's oldest woman dies

MONTREAL, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Julie Winnefred Bertrand of Montreal has died at the age of 115 after a month as the oldest woman in the world.

Bertrand became the world's second oldest person and oldest woman after the death of Elizabeth Bolden, a Tennessee woman who made it to 116. Bertrand died in her sleep early Thursday at the nursing home where she had lived for 35 years, the Montreal Gazette reported.

The oldest of the six children of Napoleon Bertrand and Julia Mullins of Coaticook, Quebec, Bertrand spent much of her life in the town. She worked as a buyer for a local department store, Magasin F.X. Lajoie.

A niece, Elaine Sauciere, said that her aunt had the opportunity to marry but rejected it. One of her possible beaus was Louis St. Laurent, the brother of a friend who went on to become prime minister of Canada.

The family plans to hold a private service for Bertrand in the nursing home with burial in a plot that Bertrand purchased decades ago in Coaticook.