It was one of Besse Cooper’s secrets to long life: “I mind my own business and I don’t eat junk food.” This she said in 2009, when she turned 113.
Cooper, of Monroe, who died Tuesday at 116 and 100 days, did a few amazing things in her lifetime. She lived on her own until age 105, when she moved into a nursing home, and even then she was still “with it,” her son Sidney Cooper told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2011.
One accomplishment that will be hard for another person to top is being named the world’s oldest living person — twice.
“We thought one was enough,” her joking son said at her 115th birthday party.
Funeral arrangements had not been announced late Wednesday but will be handled by Meadows Funeral Home Inc. in Monroe.
Cooper died after contracting a stomach virus over the weekend, according to her son. Sidney Cooper said his mother felt better Monday but had trouble breathing Tuesday and was placed on oxygen at her Walton County nursing home, where she died early in the afternoon.
Guinness World Records, which had twice crowned Cooper the world’s oldest person, offered a touching tribute on its website.
“At 116 years and 100 days, Ms. Cooper’s extraordinary life places her among the ten oldest people ever verified in history, and one of only eight people to reach the age of 116,” Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday said in the tribute. “We were proud to celebrate the life of Ms. Cooper in our most recent editions, and pleased that we were able to share the story of this remarkable woman.”
Cooper, who was classified as a supercentenarian — one who is 110 or older — was first christened the world’s oldest person in January 2011. She had to relinquish the title three months later when Guinness discovered Maria Gomes Valentim of Brazil was 48 days older. When Valentim died June 21, 2011, Cooper recaptured the title.
To celebrate her birthday this year, a bridge in Monroe was named in Cooper’s honor. She wasn’t able to attend the dedication but smiled when told of the honor, her family said.
Besse Brown Cooper was born in 1896 in Sullivan County, Tenn., according to a biography on the East Tennessee State University website. To put her birth year in perspective, when she was born, Grover Cleveland was president of a nation with 45 states; Atlanta was less than half the size of Omaha, Neb.; the first modern Olympic Games had just been held in Greece; Henry Ford was tinkering with a motorized contraption he called the Quadricyle, the grandfather of the Model T; and Hollywood was a farming village.
Cooper was a 1916 graduate of East Tennessee State Normal School, which later became ETSU. She moved to Georgia during World War I to teach because teachers in Georgia made more money, her son previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She married Luther Cooper in 1924 and stopped teaching after she had her first child at age 33. The couple reared four children during their nearly 40-year marriage. Luther Cooper died in 1963.
And though she stopped teaching, the teacher in her remained. She insisted that her children get an education, her oldest daughter, Angie Tharp, said in 2010.
Tharp had fond recollections of her childhood and the creativity of her mother. Cooper made tasty dishes from simple ingredients, her daughter said.
“What she couldn’t do with an apple, it couldn’t be done,” she said.
Cooper is survived by her children and a number of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
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