Edith "Edie" Recagno Keenan Ceccarelli, a California resident who is the oldest person in the United States, celebrated her 116th birthday Monday, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Ceccarelli's birthday celebration has become an annual tradition in recent years in Willits, the small town of some 5,000 people about 160 miles northwest of Sacramento, where she was born and lives, KTXL reported, according to Yahoo News.
To celebrate Ceccarelli's birthday, police and fire officials from the town led off a parade, which included honking, waving, and cheering from people driving by.
The celebration went on despite rainy and windy conditions.
Evelyn Perisco, who has known Ceccarelli since the latter was 100, told KTXL: "I'm sure [the bad weather] put a damper on some people, but the amount of people that drove by, we had just an incredible turnout. ... This is an incredible town with the way people are in support. It's awesome."
Ceccarelli was born Feb. 5, 1908, with Recagno as her maiden name. She is the eldest of seven, outliving all of her siblings. The Keenan surname comes from Ceccarelli's first husband, and her current last name is from her second husband.
When she was born, Theodore Roosevelt was president and baseball legend Babe Ruth was still six years away from making the Major Leagues.
Ceccarelli was 6 when World War I started, and sliced bread wasn't sold until she was 20.
In addition to being the oldest American, Ceccarelli is the second-oldest person in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Maria Branyas of Spain, who was born in San Francisco, is several months older than Ceccarelli.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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