Template:InfoboxBesse Berry Cooper (b. August 26, 1896 – d. December 4, 2012) was an American supercentenarian who died at the age of 116 years old. She was the oldest verified living person in the world until she died on December 4, 2012, when Dina Manfredini took her place. There is a bridge named after her in Georgia. When she died she was living in a retirement home in Georgia. She was the last verified living person born in 1896. She had the title The Oldest Person In The World since June 2011.
Cooper was born Besse Berry Brown in Sullivan County, Tennessee, on August 26, 1896, the third of eight children born to Richard Brown (1861–1932) and Angeline Berry (1866–1927) As a child, she was a keen scholar who read constantly. She graduated from East Tennessee State Normal School (now East Tennessee State University) in 1916, and worked as a schoolteacher in Tennessee before moving to Georgia around the time of the American entry into World War I in 1917. She married Luther Cooper in 1924. She taught in Between, Georgia, until 1929.