CORBEIL, Ontario Marie Louise Meilleur, proclaimed the world's oldest person at 117, died peacefully on Thursday at a nursing home in a small northern Ontario town, a nurse at the home said. She lived for 7 1/2 months beyond her 117th birthday. I can confirm that she died peacefully this afternoon of natural causes, a nurse at the Nipissing Manor Home in Corbeil, Ontario, said in a telephone interview.

Meilleur, who was born on August 29, 1880, in Kamouraska, Quebec, was deemed the world's oldest person by the Guinness Book of Records after the death of France's Jeanne Calment, who had lived to be 122. Although there were others who claimed to be older, they lacked the documentation Guinness requires for proof. Meilleur reportedly moved into the nursing home near the Ontario-Quebec border at 107.

She was almost blind and could barely hear, officials said. Olive Therrien told the Peterborough, Ontario, examiner that her mother died after a blood clot moved into her lung. She's been very well until last week, said Therrien, 78, of Peterborough, Ontario. She got a blood clot in her leg and it moved from her leg into her lung. The secret to her long life, her 72-year-old daughter Rita Gutzman said during the birthday celebration last August, was hard work.

She said hard work could never kill a person, Gutzman said. Meilleur had 10 children from two marriages, most of whom have died, her daughter said, adding that three daughters and one son are still living. She also leaves 85 grandchildren, 80 great-grandchildren and 57 great-great grandchildren, Canadian press said. (Reuters)