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© AP Photo/David GoldmanAgeing gracefully: Besse Cooper says avoiding junk food has held her have a long life.
Besse Cooper's secret to a long life has been never to eat junk food.

Mrs Cooper who has been officially crowned the oldest person in the world celebrated her 115th year when staff at the nursing home in in Monroe, Georgia in which she lives threw her a party.

Her 76-year-old-son, Sidney Cooper said that his mother was in good health and still had an agile mind.

'She still remembers things and thinks clearly and talks. She never worried,' he told the Telegraph.

'But she has her good days and her bad days. I'd say she sleeps about 80 per cent of the time.'

A researcher from the Guinness Book of World Records also attended the birthday party to deliver her a second plaque that certifies her as the oldest person on the planet.

When asked for her secrets to a long life, the great-great-grandmother told local newspapers: 'I mind my own business,' and 'I don't eat junk food.'

Mrs Cooper was born in Tennessee in 1896, and moved to Georgia during the First World War to work as a teacher.

In the same year Mrs Cooper was born, the first Dow Jones Industrial Average was published, the first modern Olympic Games were held and the first Ford vehicle was built.

Mrs Cooper married her husband Luther in 1924, and they had four children.

Today, she has 12 grandchildren and more than a dozen great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.