María Esther Heredia Lecaro de Capovilla, known internationally as María Capovilla, was an Ecuadorian supercentenarian, and, at the time of her death at age 116 years 347 days, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world"s oldest living person.
Background
Born as María Esther Heredia Lecaro in Guayaquil, she was the daughter of a colonel, and lived a life among the upper-class elite, attending social functions and art classes. Antonio, an ethnic Italian, was born in Pola, Austria-Hungary (now Pula, Croatia), in 1864.
Career
She never smoked or drank hard liquor. He moved to Chile in 1894 and then to Ecuador in 1910. She also had twelve grandchildren, twenty great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
At age 100, Maria nearly died and was given last rites, but had been free of health problems since then
In December 2005, at the age of 116, Maria was in good health for someone of her age and watched television, read the paper and walked without the aid of a stick (though she was helped by an aide). In a media interview Maria stated her dislike of the fact that women nowadays are permitted to court men, rather than the reverse.
By March 2006, however, Capovilla"s health had declined, and she was not able to read the newspaper any more. Maria had nearly stopped talking and no longer walked except when helped by two people.
Still, Capovilla was able to sit in her chair and fan herself, and had been doing fine until she succumbed to a bout of pneumonia in the last week of August 2006, just 18 days before she would have celebrated her 117th birthday.
Her life spanned three centuries and the rule of 33 elected Ecuadorian Presidents. Guinness noted that "María Esther de Capovilla has beaten the odds – not only to live past 116, but to have the records to prove lieutenant" Their spokesman, Sam Knights, added in a telephone interview from London that "while a lot of the time it"s difficult for people to prove their age, there was no problem with any of the documents we were shown in Mistress Capovilla"s case". Capovilla was finally added to the Guinness website on 12 April 2006.
At the time of her death at age 116 years 347 days, Capovilla was the fifth-oldest verified person to have ever lived.
Following her death on 27 August 2006, her successor as oldest person was Elizabeth Bolden, the previous "titleholder". Bolden became only the second person to regain the title after losing it (Frenchwoman and all-time world recordholder Jeanne Calment was the first).