Third-oldest person in world dies

DALLAS, March 24 (UPI) -- The world's reputed third-oldest person, Arbella Perkins Ewings, has died at a retirement community in Dallas at the age of 114.

Ewings passed away just nine days after celebrating her birthday with a room full of family, friends and television cameras, The Dallas Morning News reported Monday.

Officials at the Grace Presbyterian Village where Ewings was a resident said she stopped eating and refused to get out of bed three or four days before she passed away.

"She was telling everyone, 'It's time to meet my maker,'" said Sabrina Porter, the facility's executive director. "She died very peacefully."

At the time of her death, Ewings was the oldest person in Texas, the second-oldest American and the third-oldest person in the world, said Gerontology Research Group, a California organization that tracks the world's oldest people.

Ewings was born March 13, 1894, on a Freestone County farm, the fourth of 12 children. Her great-grandparents had been slaves in Mississippi.

The oldest person, Edna Parker of Indiana, is set to turn 115 in April, and the second-oldest, Maria de Jesus of Portugal, turned 114 last September, the newspaper said.