World’s oldest woman dies in Jalisco, Mexico at age 127

The world’s oldest woman — and the oldest person, according to most sources — died Monday in Mexico at age 127.

Leandra Becerra died Monday in Mexico at age 127.

Leandra Becerra, born August 31, 1887, had lived with her grandson’s family in Zapopan, in western Mexico, for the last five years.

Her grandson, Samuel Alvear, said his grandmother’s birth certificate was lost during the Mexican revolution in 1912. She was given a new birth certificate in 2009 after an investigation of 20th century electoral documents by the Mexican government.

Becerra credited her long life with eating lots of chocolates and cookies, drinking tequila, getting plenty of sleep and staying away from men. She never married although she had five children and 200 descendants, in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, and in the U.S.

Despite her general avoidance of men, she was known as the last of the revolutionary-era “adelitas,” women who followed their men into battle.