SACRAMENTO -- Even the nation's oldest living man is celebrating Barack Obama's extraordinary victory.

Alex Brandon / Associated Press

At 112, George Rene Francis of Sacramento has lived through 19 U.S. presidents and six decades of Jim Crow laws, when he and all black Americans were forced to endure racial segregation.

The slight, wheelchair-bound New Orleans native also has outlived all other men in the country, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks proven records of extreme age worldwide.

On Wednesday, a beaming Francis told his daughters he felt like jumping up and down after helping to elect the nation's first black president.

Despite his troubled vision, Francis clearly recognized a newspaper photo of Obama, his wife and daughters as the senator prepared to speak at his victory rally in Chicago.

AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli

Lelia LaRue, right, shows her father, George Francis, 112, a copy of the morning newspaper with President-elect Barack Obama on the front page, at the Sacramento, Calif. nursing home where Francis lives, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008. Francis, the oldest living male in the U.S. according to records kept by the Gerontology Research Group, is believed to be the oldest man to vote for Obama in Tuesday's election.

"Daddy, do you know who that is?" asked his 78-year-old daughter Lelia LaRue, placing a hand on Francis' shoulder.

"Yes, that's Obama," Francis said, letting out a small sigh. "It's beautiful. He made democracy work."

Francis, who was born on June 6, 1896, grew up listening to Louis Armstrong play trumpet on his front porch in New Orleans' Seventh Ward. He still remembers when Booker T. Washington told his third-grade class to treat everyone with respect.

A lifelong Democrat, he cast his first ballot in the early 1930s, when he voted for Franklin Roosevelt.

In 1949, before the civil rights movement, he moved west to California seeking a better job.

His wife of four decades, Josephine, died in 1964 at age 63.

But Francis' extended family -- which includes four children, 18 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren -- say the man they call "Papa" never lost his spirit, nor his interest in politics.

"When we told him that there was a black man doing this, running for president, he got very excited about it," said LaRue, who mailed in her father's absentee ballot marked for Obama two weeks ago. "He said he wanted to vote."

The second-oldest woman in the U.S., 114-year-old Gertrude Baines, also mailed in a ballot checked for Obama, said Stephen Coles, who directs the Inglewood, Calif.-based Gerontology Research Group.

While Francis is now confined to a nursing home in South Sacramento, he said he has great hopes Obama will bring

far-reaching change.

"He is going to give black men a break in the world, and give them a better opportunity to live and make more money," Francis said. "For people who say voting doesn't matter, I think that's crazy."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)