America's Oldest Citizen Turns 115
Above: America’s Oldest citizen Jeralean Talley with a photograph showing her and her late husband Alfred, on her 115th birthday in on May 23, 2014.
It was just a routine birthday for Jeralean Talley on Friday – a visit to the doctor in the morning, birthday cake in the afternoon for the Michigan resident.
Except that Talley, who turned 115 on Friday, is believed to be the oldest person in the United States and the second-oldest in the world, according to Gerontology Research Group, which validates ages of the world's longest-living people.
Talley, who lives in the Detroit suburb of Inkster, credits her faith in God for her longevity and is not impressed by the attention from the public and news media she gets now on her birthday.
Talley was born in Georgia on May 23, 1899, one of 12 children. She moved with her husband, Alfred Talley, to Michigan in 1935 for his job at a Ford plant. He died in 1988. She worked in a laundry washing and ironing, she said.
Worn framed black and white pictures of Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy hang on a wall in the home. Talley says she is a Democrat and voted for PresidentBarack Obama.
The only person in the world confirmed to be older than Talley is Misao Okawa of Japan, who turned 116 in March, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Reuters News Agency reports that a birthday party is planned on Sunday for Talley at New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Inkster, where she is a long-time member with a reserved front row seat; Talley said she has lived by the golden rule.