Sterling Heights: An Iraqi native has become a US citizen at age 111.
WWJ-AM reports (http://cbsloc.al/whya5c) that Warina Zaya Bashou took the oath of citizenship on Friday at her Sterling Heights home, north of Detroit.
The radio station says Bashou was surrounded by about a dozen relatives and friends during the ceremony.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Marilu Cabrera says Bashou was born in 1900 and is the second-oldest person on record to be naturalised.
Bashou credits her longevity to drinking green tea.
Bashou has been in the United States nine years. She said through an interpreter that becoming a citizen is something she wanted to do for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren to remember her by.
She turns 112 in July.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, January 16, 2012, 12:12