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Oldest American dies; Ames woman now country's oldest
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Mar. 8, 2010 1:27 pm
A New Hampshire woman certified as the oldest living American has died.
Mary Josephine Ray died Sunday at a Westmoreland nursing home at age 114.
The Gerontology Research Group says that until her death on Sunday, Ray was the oldest person in the United States and the second oldest person in the world.
The title of oldest living American now goes to Neva Morris of Ames, Iowa, who is also 114.
The oldest person in the world is 114-year-old Kama Chinen.
Ray was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada. She moved to the United States at age 3.
She lived for 60 years in Anson, Maine, and moved to Westmoreland in 2002 to be near her children.
A funeral is set for Thursday in Madison, Maine.
-- Associated Press
Neva Morris talks with a friend, Frank Schneider, at her 110th birthday party at Northcrest Community Center in Ames in August 2005. Morris was born on Aug, 3, 1895 in a farmhouse approximately two miles south of Linconway in Ames. (AP)

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