Adams-Bates lived until 107, long enough to experience the inauguration of the first black president

[bigtree]

Life story: Edna Banks Adams-Bates

Grandchildren weren’t surprised when they saw a 1922 picture of Edna Banks Adams-Bates trudging down a sidewalk during a time when African Americans were expected to get off the walkway to let whites pass. That was just Grandma Edna, they said. Adams-Bates lived until she was 107, long enough to experience segregation, the civil rights movement, and the inauguration of the first African-American president of the United States.

___ During the primaries and the general election, she made doubly sure she received her mail-in ballots and sent them in as soon as she could. On a stand next to her favorite ivory chair, between family pictures and flowers, she placed Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope."

When the presidential election results came in, Edna was 105 years old. She never thought she'd live to see the day.

But she did.

On Inauguration Day, Edna -- the same woman who once barreled down that segregated Arkansas sidewalk and followed her grandchildren's school bus with a shotgun -- watched history unfold.

"Lord baby," she said, almost to herself. "It finally happened."


read story: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/04/life_story_edna_banks-adams_ba.html

[monmouth]

1. The fact that Ms. Bates lived long enough to see and enjoy the

Inauguration Day of Barack Obama assures me that there actually is a higher power out there. Great OP..

[bigtree]

2. .