Iowa woman believed to be oldest in US dies aged 115

An Iowa woman who was believed to be the oldest living person in the US has died at the age of 115.

Bessie Laurena Hendricks, of Lake City, died on Tuesday at the Shady Oaks Care Centre, according to Lampe & Powers Funeral Home in Lake City.

Born in 1907 in west-central Iowa’s Calhoun County, Ms Hendricks was alive to witness news of the sinking of the Titanic, the First and Second World Wars, the Great Depression and both the Spanish flu and Covid-19 pandemics.

She was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse there and the mother of five children, according to the Des Moines Register.

She is survived by three of her children.

A funeral service for Ms Hendricks will be held at Lampe & Powers Funeral Home on Saturday.

The Gerontology Research Group reports that Ms Hendrick’s death leaves 114-year-old Edie Ceccarelli, of California, as the country’s oldest living person.