Beryl Kapaun

(Ruth) Beryl Kapaun (4 June 1899 - 7 November 2012) was a verified American supercentenarian who was the tweflth-oldest verified person in the world at the time of her death. She was also the oldest ever person from South Dakota.

Biography
She was born in South Dakota on 4 June 1899. As a child, her family moved around the country a lot because her mother had bronchial conditions that required moving to warmer climates during the winter. After graduating from high school, she took business courses at college. She worked in offices and in Colorado as a stenographer for a fruit-growing company. She later returned to the family farm near Montrose to care for her parents, where she stayed until the 1990s. She never married.

She lived on her own until the age of 104, when she had a fall and a broken hip. She then moved in to a nursing home in Salem, South Dakota. She put her longevity down to good genes, clean living, and never overeating at meals. She died on 7 November 2012 at the age of 113 years, 156 days. It was believed that she was the oldest living resident of South Dakota for more than four years.