Last week, the world’s oldest living person, 115-year-old Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico, passed away.

That meant that the oldest living person in the world was an American — Emma Faust Tillman of Connecticut.  Ms. Tillman was the son of a slave, and was born in 1892 in North Carolina.

Last night, after being the "world’s oldest living person" for four days, Ms. Tillman died.