Emiliano Mercado Del Toro

Puerto Rican supercentenarian who was, at age 115, the world's oldest person for six weeks, and the world's oldest man from 19 November 2004 (death of Fred H. Hale, Sr.) until his own death on 24 January 2007. Mercado became the oldest documented living person on 11 December 2006, following the death of 116-year-old Elizabeth Bolden. At the time of his death in Isabela, Puerto Rico, in 2007, at the age of 115 years and 156 days, Mercado was the second oldest fully validated male ever, behind Danish-American Christian Mortensen's record of 115 years 252 days. (Although Shigechiyo Izumi was still believed to be older at the time of his death. Izumi's record was withdrawn by Guinness World Records in 2010). Emiliano worked in the cane fields until the age of 81. He never married and never had children, but said he had three "girlfriends" (love interests) in his life. He credited his longevity to funche, a boiled corn, codfish and milk cream-like dish, which he ate every day as a habit. Mercado also claimed that his sense of humor was probably responsible for his long life, and he would tell jokes and humorous anecdotes almost to the end of his days. Link to Wikipedia biography