Gertrude Baines, a former maid who was born before the discovery of penicillin and was the world’s oldest person, died today in Los Angeles. She was 115.

She died peacefully in her sleep at Western Convalescent Hospital, according to the hospital’s administrator, Emma Camanag. An autopsy is planned.

The Shellman, Ga., native, whose father was believed to have been a slave, was born April 6, 1894, when the U.S. flag had 44 stars and Grover Cleveland was president. She married at a young age and later divorced. Her only child, a daughter, died of typhoid at 18. Baines had outlived every one of her relatives.

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