With her family looking on, Sterling Heights resident Warina Zaya Bashou, at the age of 111, became the second oldest person ever sworn in as a U.S. citizen during a Friday afternoon ceremony.

Mrs. Bashou was sworn in at the Chantilly Street home of her daughter, Mary Shammami, and her husband, Adel Shammami, where she also resides.

"She is very proud," said Dina Kajy, Mrs. Bashou's great-granddaughter who is expecting her first child later this year. "She is a wonderful person. She is so very happy to become a U.S. citizen."

The Bashou and Shammami families are Chaldean Catholics from Baghdad, Iraq. Kajy's parents, Adel and Mary Shammami, became U.S. citizens last September and have lived in the United States for the past 16 years.

"My parents came to the United States to flee Saddam Hussein," said Kajy, who became a U.S. citizen after she turned 18 years old. "My mother worked for the past 14 years as a housekeeper in a hotel and my great-grandmother worked in the grain fields in Baghdad before coming to the United States."

Mrs. Bashou's husband died 50 years ago in Iraq.

Although Mrs. Bashou cannot get around as easily as she once could, said her daughter, Mary Shammami, she is bright and has no trouble carrying on a conversation.

Marilu Cabrera of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Detroit said only one person older than Mrs. Bashou has even been sworn in as a U.S. citizen.