France's oldest person dies at 113

Photo: France's oldest person dies at 113

The oldest person of France – a blind and deaf 113-year-old woman – has died, city officials in southeastern Cannes and her nephew said Wednesday.

Simone Capony, who was born March 14, 1894, died Saturday at her apartment in the Mediterranean resort city, where she had been under daily care to help her eat, Cannes officials said.

"She had a strong character and never wanted to go to a retirement home, even though she couldn't go out" after breaking her thigh at age 100, her nephew, Rene Capony, told The Associated Press. By the end of her life, "she was still lucid."

Capony never married after a young aviator to whom she had been engaged was killed in World War I. She lived her entire life in Cannes, where she worked as a librarian.

Capony was recently listed as the world's fifth-oldest living person on the Web site of the Gerontology Research Group at the UCLA School of Medicine, which documents people over 100.