106-year-old Atlanta woman basks in Obama tribute

[catgirl]

Source: Associated Press

ATLANTA – At age 106, Ann Nixon Cooper doesn't usually stay awake past midnight. But on Election Night she had special reason to do so: She was waiting for Barack Obama to mention her name. Cooper, one of the oldest voters for the nation's first black president, had been tipped off by the Obama campaign that she would be mentioned in his acceptance speech. Toward the end, she got her moment.
"I was waiting for it," said Cooper. "I had heard that they would be calling my name at least."
Obama introduced the world to a woman who "was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin."
"Tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can," he said.
On Wednesday, Cooper beamed as she greeted reporters at her southwest Atlanta home, wearing a gold cross around her neck that proudly displayed her age.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_re_us/centenarian_voter_2

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Cooper first registered to vote on Sept. 1, 1941. Though she was friends with elite black Atlantans like W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and Benjamin E. Mays, because of her status as a black woman in a segregated and sexist society, she didn't exercise her right to vote for years.

[benddem]

1. that was beautiful

also telling the girls they could have a puppy. The whole evening was beautiful. I'm glad Mrs. Cooper could stay awake.

[MadMaddie]

2. My goodness

she knew W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and Benjamin E. Mays! That is amazing...Wow!

[Muttocracy]

3. she should get a front seat at the inauguration. And the FIRED UP! woman from SC. nt

[opihimoimoi]

4. A very touching post...Thank you :o)

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. And she's had such a great life

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5093863.ece

Ann Nixon Cooper: the history woman

She had dinner with Bobby Kennedy. Nat King Cole came to her parties. Martin Luther King sent her a telegram when her husband died and she has photographs of herself with his late wife Coretta on her sideboard.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, at the age of 106, she beat her personal best - Barack Obama singled out Ann Nixon Cooper for praise in his acceptance speech to hundreds of thousands of ecstatic supporters in Chicago.

<snip>
Born in Tennessee, in 1902, she was raised by her aunt after her mother died. By the age of 20, she had married a dentist, Albert Berry Cooper, from Nashville, Tennessee, and they moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where for a few months she worked as a policy writer for the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, before starting a family.

As her husband's dental practice prospered, Mrs Nixon Cooper turned to public work, serving for more than 50 years on the board of the Gate City Nursery Association, and helping to found the Girls’ Club for African-American Youth in Atlanta. While bringing up her five children, she also worked in the 1970s at the Ebenezer Baptist Church — where Dr King used to preach — helping people to read.

According to her 57-year old grandson, Albert Cooper, the segregated ghetto of Atlanta where she lives managed to shield itself from the worst of the violence against blacks during the fifties and sixties. He said: "We had a very big black community here, and we had everything we needed. Our own drycleaners, our own gas stations, our own buses, so we didn't need to sit at the back of the bus at all."

He explained that part of his grandmother's extensive and impressive social circle was created because, as a black woman, she was barred from having tea at the Richie Department store in Atlanta where wealthy, middle-class women would meet. "So she started book clubs and gin rummy clubs here, instead," he said. Her sequined cocktail dress still hangs behind a book shelf that shows off her tiny dancing shoes.

While those black leaders of forty years ago who fought hardest for equal rights are all dead, many of them, in photographs, stared out proudly as Mrs Nixon Cooper took that call.

[itsrobert]

6. "having"

thanks

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. Yes, indeed! "Having!"

:hi:

[catgirl]

7. Thanks for your lovely post

She's an inspiration for all...

[Raine]

13. THANKS for the bio

very moving to read. :thumbsup:

[jcla]

14. Hope Mrs. Nixon-Cooper gets to the inauguration!

Both those ladies are inspiring! Thanks to all the "Over 80's" adults who voted... some waiting in lines for hours to vote! This should keep the youngsters inspired to wait and vote! I do wish more precincts would accommodate the older voters. Some of my neighbors who shouldn't stood in lines to vote as absentee ballots were not always the safe option here.

[AnnieBW]

9. K&R

For this lovely lady!

[qanda]

10. Ann the voter

Thank God for a real hero.

[brentspeak]

11. 104-year-old Pauline Krawkowsky of Passaic, NJ, voting for Obama

She's white, and two years younger than Ms.Cooper, but deserves a hand as well:

[No Passaran]

12. Beautiful picture

Amazing stories

[VWolf]

15. Let's make a comparison, shall we?

On the one hand, you've got President-elect Obama chronicling Ann Nixon Cooper's long journey, using it as an example of what is possible and what is yet to come.

On the other hand, you've got John McCain extolling the virtues of Joe the Plumber.

And they wonder why they lost. :rofl:

[skypilot]

16. I saw her on the new last night.

She does NOT look 106 years old. I can only hope to look half as good as that when I'm 76.