Besse Cooper, World's Oldest Person (116), Does Not Eat Junk

It's difficult enough to fit 16 candles on a birthday cake, but try squeezing 116 on one.

Besse Cooper, the world's oldest living person according to Guinness World Records, celebrated her 116th birthday on Sunday, August 26, in Monroe, Georgia — one of only eight people in recorded history to reach that age. She used numbers instead of candles.

Her path to the title was a small drama of its own. Guinness first certified her as the world's oldest person in January 2011 — then briefly took the title away when Brazilian-born Maria Gomes Valentim turned out to be 48 days older. When Valentim died on June 21, 2011, Cooper was reinstated, and she has held the distinction ever since.

Born in Tennessee in 1896, Cooper moved to Monroe during World War I to work as a teacher. She married her husband Luther in 1924, raised four children, and accumulated 12 grandchildren plus great and great-great-grandchildren by the dozen. To honor the birthday, the Walton County Board of Commissioners named a bridge after her on New Hope Church Road; her son Sidney Cooper, relaying her message at the ceremony, said, "I'm glad I gave them a reason to name it."

And the secret to 116 years? Asked by Guinness, Cooper offered two pieces of advice that fit on a fortune cookie and are harder than they sound: "I mind my own business. And I don't eat junk food."

Stress management and real food. No superfood, no protocol, no biohacking stack — just staying out of other people's drama and keeping the fried stuff off the plate. The woman who lived from the first modern Olympics to the iPhone may have the most quotable longevity advice ever recorded.