Annie Mae Hancock White celebrated 101 years of life with family and friends on her birthday, March 21, at her Southern Pines home of 72 years. A drive-by parade escorted by the Southern Pines Police Department honked horns, waved, stopped to exchange gifts of cards, money, flowers and more at White’s home.
Relatives and friends from Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, South Carolina and Tennessee joined the parade, and afterward, the party continued at the Southern Pines Pool Park. The park party included a dinner of fried fish, chicken, barbequed pig’s feet, potato salad and all the customary Southern side dishes and desserts.
Early in the morning on the day of her parade celebration, a great-great-great-great-granddaughter was born.
White’s son, Lee Dale, lives with her and assists with heavy tasks, but White is agile and able to care for herself.
Annie Mae Hancock White is honored in the Queen’s Birthday Chair March 21, 2021 as her daughter Pat hands her a card, and her son Lee Dale enjoys the parade.
“No dementia, still cooks, cleans house, and the only way to tell she is aging is she uses a cane,” her daughter Annie (Pat) White said. “She is independent and until COVID, she still went to church.” She attended Refuge Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ for years and now attends Crusade for Christ.
Neighbor and granddaughter, Monique Waddell, checks on White twice a week or more.
During her working years, she was a housekeeper at Moore Memorial Hospital and worked her way up to dietary supervisor.
White had 11 children and six are still living. They include Charles, Mary Lorraine, Thomas Franklin, Annie (Pat), George, and Lee Dale.
Annie Mae Hancock White’s daughter, Mary Lorraine, of Wagram, shares a handwritten history of her mother.
White said she changed her name from Annie Minerva to Annie Mae in her high school years when she started considering an attractive name for dating.
She was birthed with a midwife and moved to Southern Pines when she was four or five from Wadesboro. “Moved on a wagon,” White said.
“Most exciting thing has been living for the Lord and treating people right,” White said. “I don’t hate nobody. I help anybody, and I say if you’re Black or white, please don’t bother my children, and we’ll get along fine.”
For nearly twenty minutes, White waved and shouted greetings from her birthday chair as parade participants stopped to converse over the cheering and honking for their Queen of Henley Street.
Feature photo: Annie Mae Hancock White celebrates her 101st birthday outside her Southern Pines home as a parade passes by.
~Article, photos, and video by Sandhills Sentinel Reporter Stephanie M. Sellers.
