World's oldest man dead at 111

CARNEGIE, Okla. (AP) -- Benjamin Harrison Holcomb, declared the world's oldest man earlier this year by the Guinness Book of Records, has died.

Family members said Holcomb died on Saturday in the arms of his 84-year-old daughter, Leona Ford. Holcomb was 111.

Holcomb was born July 3, 1889. He farmed on the edge of Cache Creek near Apache until 1996 when he moved into a Carnegie nursing home.

Ford, her sister, Lucille Bridwell, 85, and her brother, John Holcomb, 80, visited their father every day for six years.

Over the years, Holcomb was often asked the secret to his longevity.

"I'll tell you this," Holcomb once said. "If you live one day at a time and you don't die, you'll live a long life."

Holcomb was interested in politics his entire life, Ford said.

He was also an avid hunter, featured in a 1998 Outdoor Life Magazine for being the oldest man, at 107, to shoot a deer.

The two interests collided on a hunting trip to Arkansas.

"All these guys were drinking beer and telling wild tales,"

Ford said. "Daddy noticed one man who didn't really do any of that.

"He came over to my daddy and his friends and asked them to vote for him for governor. My dad said: 'If you ever run for president, I will'."

The man was President Clinton.

A funeral is scheduled at 2 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church in Apache, arranged by Crews Funeral Home in Apache.