World’s oldest man dies in Spain aged 113

A Spanish village on Tuesday declared a day of mourning following the death of a retired farmer billed as “the world’s oldest man”, who passed away just over a month after turning 113.

Francisco Núñez Olivera, who was 10 years old when World War One broke out, died on Monday in the village of Bienvenida in southwestern Spain where he had lived throughout his life, village mayor Antonio Carmona told AFP.

Born on December 13, 1904, relatives credited Núñez Olivera’s long life to a diet based on vegetables he grew on his own land and a daily glass of red wine.

Every morning for breakfast, he would have sponge cake made with olive oil and a glass of milk. Until the age of 107, he went out for daily walks by himself, according to Spanish media reports published when he celebrated his last birthday.

Núñez Olivera, known in the village as Marchena due to his likeness to a Spanish flamenco singer who used that stage name, had been a widower since 1988.

He fought in the Rif War in the first half of the 1920s between Spain and the Berber tribes of the Rif mountains in Morocco and lived through General Francisco Franco’s 1936-75 dictatorship.

Spain has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, which doctors often attribute to the country’s Mediterranean diet.

Source: The Sun