Mary Josephine Ray, nation's oldest

WESTMORELAND, N.H. - Mary Josephine Ray, the New Hampshire woman who was certified as the oldest person living in the United States, died Sunday at age 114 years, 294 days.

Ms. Ray, who died at a nursing home in Westmoreland, was active until about two weeks before her death, her granddaughter Katherine Ray said.

"She just enjoyed life," Ray said. "She never thought of dying at all. She was planning for her birthday party."

Even with her recent decline, the granddaughter said, Ms. Ray managed an interview with a reporter last week.

Ms. Ray, born May 17, 1895, was the oldest person in the United States and the second-oldest in the world, according to the Gerontology Research Group. She was also recorded as the oldest person ever to live in New Hampshire.

The oldest living American is now Neva Morris, 114, of Ames, Iowa; she was born Aug. 3, 1895. Nearly three months older than Morris is the oldest person in the world, Japan's Kama Chinen, who was born May 10, 1895.

Ms. Ray was born in Bloomfield, Prince Edward Island, and moved to the United States at age 3. For 60 years she lived in Anson, Maine. She lived in Florida, Massachusetts, and elsewhere in New Hampshire before moving to Westmoreland in 2002 to be near her children.

Her husband, Walter, died in 1967. Survivors include two sons, eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren.

Morris, the Iowan now believed to be the oldest U.S. resident, lives at a care center. Only one of her four children, a son, is still alive.