A 119-year-old Michigan woman may be the world's oldest living person, but Arbelia Wood can't hold the official title because there's no proof of her age.
A family bible older than Wood is the only proof she was born on April 6, 1885, in Arkansas, the Detroit Free Press reported. The county where she was born didn't start keeping records until 1912 and a 1921 fire in Washington destroyed records of the 1890 Census, officials said.
Wood, who beat cancer twice and survived two husbands, said she doesn't know why she has lived so long, but thanked her mother for a good upbringing.
"I had a smart momma, clever momma," Wood said. "I had to walk the line."
Wood, who moved to Michigan in the 1930s, defied traditional gender and racial roles, her 91-year-old brother said. The 119-year-old, who still feeds herself, has been in a Mount Clemens, Mich., nursing home since 1993.
The Guinness record for the world's oldest living person is held by a 114-year-old woman in The Netherlands.
© Copyright 2004 by United Press International
