Metro

Harlem woman Alelia Murphy believed to be oldest living American at 114

A longtime Harlem resident, believed to be the oldest person in America, will celebrate her 114th birthday on Saturday.

Alelia Murphy was born in North Carolina on July 6, 1905, when Theodore Roosevelt was president and Albert Einstein first proposed the theory of relativity. She raised two children by herself following the death of her husband at a young age.

The record-setting supercentenarian, who’s lived in Harlem since the 1920s, credits her long life to eating well and staying active, her nurse Natalia Mhlambiso told the Manhattan Times.

“She grew up in the South in the days before processed food, so she ate very healthy,” Mhlambiso, who visits Murphy twice a week, told the local outlet. “Keeping active when you are younger, and eating healthy and continuing to do so — it really does help a lot.”

Murphy added, “Trust in God and be a good person.”

Her age has been verified by the Gerontology Research Group, the Los Angeles-based organization that has been tracking people 110 and older since 1990. The Guinness Book of World Records works with GRG to confirm supercentenarians.

Murphy currently ranks as the eighth-oldest person in the world, behind five women from Japan and two from France, according to GRG.

To help mark the special occasion, Murphy will be feted at the Harlem State Office Building on Friday night by the 1199SEIU and other dignitaries.

Murphy’s daughter, Rose Green, is a retired member of the health care union.

Green described her mother as a “gift from God.”

Currently, the oldest person in the world is Kane Tanaka, of Fukuoka, Japan, who is 116 years old.