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Passes At Age 117, Misao Okawa, a Japanese woman who was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest person, died on Wednesday of heart failure, Reuters reported. She was 117.

"She went so peacefully, as if she had just fallen asleep," Tomohiro Okada, an official at the Osaka nursing home where Okawa lived, told The Associated Press. "We miss her a lot."

Okawa was born in a kimono shop on March 5, 1898. That was the year the U.S. annexed the Hawaiian islands, the first car sold in America and a new soft drink called Pepsi-Cola launched.

Okawa married Yukio Okawa in 1919 and they remained together until his death in 1931. She never remarried. Okawa bore three children, two of whom are still alive in their 90s, and had four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

When asked for the secret of her longevity, Okawa once said it was to "watch out for one's health." She also credited a healthy appetite -- she loved eating mackerel sushi -- and getting plenty of sleep.

The Japanese supercentenarian was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest person in 2013 when Jiroemon Kimura, also from Japan, died at the age of 116 years and 54 days, Bloomberg reported. Okawa was also the fifth oldest verified person ever recorded and the last living Japanese person to have been born in the 1800s.

On her last birthday, an Osaka government official brought Okawa a bouquet of flowers and wished her many happy returns, The Guardian reported. When he asked how she felt about the past 117 years, she replied: “It seemed rather short.”

The world's oldest person is now Gertrude Weaver, of Arkansas, who will turn 117 on July 4.

Passes At Age 117, Misao Okawa, who was recognized by Guinness World Records to be the world’s oldest person, has died just a few weeks after she celebrated her 117th birthday. According to ABC News, Misao Okawa died in the presence of her grandson at a nursing home in Osaka, Japan on Wednesday. The cause of her death was heart failure, an NBC News report adds.

According to Tomohiro Okada, an official from the nursing home where she spent her last days, Misao died peacefully in her sleep. He also praised her for living a healthy, fruitful, and a long life.

“She went so peacefully, as if she had just fallen asleep,” Okada said while adding the she would be “missed a lot” by the officials and staff at the nursing home.

As per official records, Misao Okawa was born on March 5, 1898 as the daughter of a traditional Japanese Kimono maker. She got married in 1919 to her husband Yukio Okawa and had three children. Her husband died in 1931 and she has remained a widow ever since. When asked how she felt after living for 117 years, her answered surprised many people. Misao, even after living for 117 years, felt that her life was too short!

That answer was remarkable considering the fact that Misao had her life span across three separate centuries! She was a teenager when the Titanic sunk and a child when the Wright Brothers flew the first plane. The U.S. has had 20 Presidents in her lifetime! She was also around at the time of both the world wars. She was also alive to see the advance of science and technology and lived long enough to see today’s connected world.

In a separate Inquisitr report earlier, it was said that there were four other persons, all of them women, who have been recorded to have lived longer than Misao Okawa. The record holder for the world’s oldest person ever happens to be Jeanne Calmant, a French woman who at the time of her death in 1997, lived 122 years and 164 days. She is followed by Sarah Knauss, a U.S. citizen who was 119 years and 97 days old when she died in 1999. In fact, had Misao lived for another 248 days since her 117th birthday, she would have become the world’s third oldest person to have ever lived. That, however, did not happen.