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Rome: Emma Morano, who at 117 was believed to be the world's oldest person and the last to be born in the 19th century, has died according to Italian media reports.
Ms Morano, who lived in northern Italy, was born on November 29, 1899, four years before the Wright brothers first took to the air. Her life spanned three centuries, two world wars and more than 90 Italian governments.
From Pope Francis's Sunday Mass in Vatican City to firecrackers lighting up the sky in Mexico City, the faithful marked the Easter holiday around the world.
Emma Morano was the last person alive to be born in the 19th century.
Italian news agencies ANSA and Agi said the death was reported by her friends and family.
Dr Carlo Bava told The Associated Press that Morano's caretaker had called him to say she had stopped breathing in the afternoon while sitting in an armchair at her home in Verbania, a town on Italy's Lake Maggiore.
Emma Morano in her apartment in Verbania, Italy, in June, 2015. Photo: AP Photo/Antonio Calanni
Dr Bava said he had last seen his patient on Friday when "she thanked me and held my hand," as she did every time he called on her. While Ms Morano had been increasingly spending more time sleeping and less time speaking in recent weeks, she had eaten her daily raw egg and biscuits that day, he said.
Dr Bava had been her physician for almost 25 years.
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Ms Morano had been living in a tidy, one-room apartment, where she was kept company by her caregiver and two elderly nieces.
"She didn't suffer. I'm happy she didn't suffer but passed away that way, tranquilly," Dr Bava said.
Emma Morano celebrates her 117th birthday on November 29, 2016. Photo: AP
He said she had been her usual chatterbox self until a few weeks ago.
Dr Bava has previously told the AP that Ms Morano lost a son to crib death when he was six months old and left her husband in the first half of the last century after he beat her.
She "abandoned the husband in the Fascist era, when women were supposed to be very submissive," he said in a 2015 interview. "She was always very decisive."
She went on to support herself by working in a factory making jute bags, then at a hotel, working way beyond the usual retirement age.
She also defied health advice, Dr Bava said on Saturday. Some doctors had warned her against eating three eggs daily, which she did for years, but she ignored their advice.
AAP
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