AMERICA'S oldest man died on Wednesday at 111. Great-great-great-grandfather Shelby Harris passed away comfortably in his sleep at the Rock Island, Illinois, nursing home where he lived for the past six years.
Outliving two wives and his three daughters, the old romantic had cited love as the secret to his long life.
"One of the greatest things in the world is to love people and believe in people," he told WQAD in a March Interview.
"I just try to live from day to day, I try to live the right kind of life. I try to live the truth. I love everybody and I want everybody to love me."
Mr Harris hands the baton for the oldest man in the United States to James McCoubrey, from San Francisco, California, who is due to turn 111 in September. There is a number of American women older than Mr McCoubrey, with the eldest, Besse Cooper, due to turn 116 in August.
Mr Harris was born in 1901 in the Southern Indiana town of Ayrshire.
He first worked as a coal miner before moving to the Quad Cities in 1942.
He signed up to fight in World War II but because of a broken ankle didn't make it out of training and later took a job with the former Union Malleable in East Moline, Illinois.
An avid baseball fan, Mr Harris threw out the first pitch at a Quad-Cities River Bandits game in Davenport in April, a month after celebrating his 111th birthday with a big bash at Rock Island Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
But administrator Dawn May said his health had deteriorated in the past few months.
"It was more or less a winding down," she told the Quad City Times, adding that he had lived on his own, with some help, before moving into the nursing home at 105.
"He lived a long life." Ms May said the old man's death caused a lot of sadness at the nursing home, which came to love him as family and even prepared his favourite meal for his birthday in March.
"Fried catfish, okra and sweet potato pie," she told the Quad City Times.
"We made that for everybody." The wider Rock Island community also adored Mr Harris, affectionately calling him 'Uncle Shelby'.
"He was a very nice man, he really was," Ms May said. "He had a lot of good stories."
Shelby Harris was born the year The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was released but before Orville and Wilbur Wright invented the airplane and the very first World Series was held.
Back in 1901, daily life was very different, with much of today's standard supermarket options considered luxurious even for the rich.