LONDON - Eva Morris, the world's oldest woman who attributed her longevity to whisky and boiled onions, died in November 2000 - six days short of her 115th birthday. Morris died peacefully in her sleep at a nursing home in the central England town of Stone. Morris was recognized as the "world's oldest woman" in the Guinness Book of Records.

A former domestic servant who was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1885, Morris was widowed in the 1930’s. She lived in her own flat until she was 107, when she moved to the nursing home after a chest infection. She rode a bicycle, and never had a day's illness apart from occasional chest infections. Guinness could not immediately confirm who it will now list as the world's oldest woman.

A Dominican, Elizabeth Israel, says she is 125 years old, but does not have the documents to prove it, a Guinness spokesman said.

The oldest man in the world is 111 year old Benjamin Holcomb of Kansas. The oldest person ever with authenticated records was Jeanne Calment of France, who died Aug. 4, 1997, at age 122.

On June 14, Maria do Como Jeronimo, a former slave whose lack of a birth certificate prevented her recognition as the world's oldest woman, died in Itajuba, Brazil. Church records listed her age as 129.