The world's oldest woman, Jeralean Talley has died at the age of 116.

Talley's title as the world's oldest person was verified by the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which tracks supercentenarians, NBC News reported.

She celebrated her birthday on 23 May and was given $116 – a dollar for each year of her life – by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in Inkster, where she lived.

Her longtime friend Michael Kinloch told Detroit Free Press that Talley died at her home. Her prayer was always not to suffer, he said, adding: "God certainly answered her prayer."

Talley had been in hospital for a week and returned home on 13 June, her daughter Thelma Holloway, 77, said.

Talley was born in Montrose in Georgia and moved to Michigan in the 1930s. Her husband of 52 years, Alfred Talley died in 1988. They had one child. Talley is survived by Thelma and three generations of grandchildren.

She credited the Lord for her long life saying: "There's nothing I can do about it."

According to the Detroit Free Press, Talley lived an active life and went fishing every summer. She gardened and mowed the lawn late into her life and went bowling until she was 104 years old. Her funeral service will be held on 27 June at the New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Inkster.

The world's oldest person title now goes to Susannah Mushatt Jones, who was born on 6 July, 1899 and lives in New York, according to the research group's list of oldest living person.

The Guinness World Records lists Jeanne Louise Calment of France as the oldest person to ever live. She was 122 years old and 164 days when she died.

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