H. van Andel-Schipper, 115; was world's oldest person
LOS ANGELES -- Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, believed to be the world's oldest person, died yesterday at a home for the elderly in Hoogeveen, Netherlands. She was 115.
''She was very clear mentally right up to the end, but the physical ailments were increasing," Johan Beijering, director of the Westerkim home for the elderly, told the Associated Press. ''She said 'It's been nice, but the man upstairs says it's time to go.' "
She had lived in the facility since she turned 106.
Born June 29, 1890, the woman known as ''Aunt Henny" had the 15th-longest lifespan ever validated, said Louis Epstein of the Gerontology Research Group, which verifies age claims for Guiness World Records.
On her 115th birthday, Mrs. van Andel-Schipper received visits from Dutch Queen Beatrix's daughter-in-law, Princess Laurentien, and a delegation from the Amsterdam Ajax soccer club, which Mrs. van Andel-Schipper supported for 87 years. She once complained that other residents of the home for the elderly were ''hicks who don't understand soccer."
In 2001, when she was 111, Mrs. van Andel-Schipper was invited to tea with the queen, which she considered a highlight of her life.
''She was really nice," the elderly guest told the Hoogeveensche Courant newspaper afterward. ''I let her ask the questions. I thought that would be best."
Epstein said Mrs. van Andel-Schipper had agreed to be autopsied by the University of Groningen to help scientists learn more about longevity. Sickly and underweight as a child, Mrs. van Andel-Schipper was robust and healthy as an adult; at age 100 she survived breast cancer that required a mastectomy.
Her advice on how to live a long life was to eat pickled herring, drink orange juice, and ''keep breathing."
Although she preferred riding her bicycle and never learned to drive, she once told Time magazine that she considered the invention of the automobile the greatest technological advance in her lifetime.
Born in Smilde, Netherlands, she taught needlework and lived with her parents until she was 47. Two years later she moved to Amsterdam and married Dick van Andel, who died of cancer in 1959. She had no children or other immediate family.
Now the title of world's oldest person has been bestowed on Elizabeth Jones Bolden of Memphis, Tenn., who is 115. 