Obituaries

I didn't see the death in November of Indiana's Edna Parker, who was the world's oldest person at 115.

Her successor, Portuguese woman Maria de Jesus, has died at the age of 115.

Gertrude Baines, 114, of Los Angeles, is now the oldest person in the world.

More:

There are now only 82 women and nine men verified as being 110 or older, according to gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles.

But he said there could be hundreds more in places such as China, India or Africa where they would not have caught the attention of the Gerontology Research Group, a small volunteer organization that tracks supercentenarians and verifies their birth dates through birth certificates and other documents.

Coles said the supercentenarians appear to share one trait that might account for their longevity — they come from families whose members are long-lived.

"Whether they drink alcohol or not, it doesn't matter. Whether they smoke cigarettes or not doesn't seem to matter," he said. "The thing that does seem to matter is that they chose their parents wisely."

"It's in the genes. It's in the DNA," he said.