Besse Cooper

Besse Berry Cooper (née Brown; August 26, 1896 – December 4, 2012) was an American supercentenarian who was the world's oldest living person from June 21, 2011 until her death. She was, at the time of her death, one of only eight people verified to have lived to the age of 116.

Biography

Early life, education and career

Cooper was born Besse Berry Brown in Sullivan County, Tennessee, on August 26, 1896, the third of eight children born to Richard Brown (1861–1932) and Angeline Berry (1866–1927). As a child, she was a keen scholar who read constantly. She graduated from East Tennessee State Normal School (now East Tennessee State University) in 1916, and worked as a schoolteacher in Tennessee before moving to Georgia around the time of the American entry into World War I in 1917. She taught in Between, Georgia, until 1929.

Later life

She married Luther Cooper (1895–1963) in 1924, and had four children with him – Angeline (b. 1929), Luther, Jr., (b. 1932), Sidney (b. 1935), and Nancy (b. 1944). Luther died aged 68 in December 1963. Following her husband's death, Cooper lived alone on their farm until 2001, when she moved into a nursing home at the age of 105. She spent her final years in Monroe, Georgia. Cooper died of respiratory failure on December 4, 2012, following a bout of stomach flu.

Longevity

Cooper became Georgia's oldest resident on January 19, 2009, following the death of 113-year-old Beatrice Farve. Cooper was additionally the second-oldest verified person from Tennessee, after Elizabeth Bolden, who died in December 2006, aged 116 years 118 days. She reputedly attributed her longevity to "minding her own business" and avoiding junk food.

At the time of her 116th birthday in August 2012, Cooper had four children, 11 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. In July 2012, a proposal was advanced to name a Georgia bridge in Cooper's honor; a bridge in Between was named Besse Brown Cooper Bridge on August 24, 2012.