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Buenos Aires (dpa) - A woman said to be the world's oldest died in Ecuador shortly before her 117th birthday, ending a life that began drinking donkey milk and spanned three centuries, reports said Tuesday.
Maria Esther Heredia de Capovilla was born September 14, 1890, and passed away in Guayaquil from a lung infection, Ecuadorian media reported, quoting her family.
De Capovilla's five daughters said their mother drank lots of donkey milk in her youth, danced often, never smoked and occasionally drank a small glass of red wine. Most of all she loved to dance the waltz.
She outlived two of her children. Her surviving children are between 78 and 81 years old. De Capovilla had 11 grandchildren, 20 greatgrandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Her husband, an engineer who emigrated from Austria, died in 1949.
According to the Guiness Book of World Records, De Capovilla has been the world's oldest woman since December 2005.
The longest living person ever recorded by the Guiness Book was Jeanne-Louise Calment. The French woman was born on February 21, 1875, and died August 4, 1997, at 122 years and 164 days old.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
