Virginia McLaurin

Virginia McLaurin was born in Cheraw, South Carolina[1] on March 12, 1909[2] (although some records have given 1917[3]). According to McLaurin, she "was birthed by a midwife and the birthday put in a Bible somewhere."[4] In her childhood, she worked in the fields with her parents, shucking corn and picking cotton.[5] She grew up during the Jim Crow era where racial segregation was rampant throughout the United States.[6]

Never receiving an education past third grade, McLaurin got married at 13 and later moved to New Jersey as part of the Great Migration.[5] Widowed when her husband was killed in a bar fight, she moved to Washington D.C. to be closer to her sister in 1939.[5]

She worked as a seamstress,[2] as a domestic helper for families in Silver Spring, Maryland, and managed a laundry shop.[5]

Since the early 1980s, she has volunteered forty hours a week at Roots Public Charter School through the Foster Grandparent Program.[6][7] In 2013, she received a volunteer community service award from Mayor Vincent C. Gray.[8] After a TV crew publicized the fact that her apartment was infested with bed bugs in 2014, a local pest control company got rid of the infestation and gave her a free bed.[9]

Towards the end of the Obama administration, friends of Virginia McLaurin recommended to members of the Obama administration that she meet with the president due to her extensive history of volunteering.[6] In February 2016, the White House hosted McLaurin in celebration of Black History Month.[6][10] Upon meeting the president and First Lady Michelle Obama, McLaurin gave them both hugs and started dancing with them.[11] She would later say in interviews that she never felt that she would ever live to visit the White House,[11] and she never thought there would ever be a day she would get to meet a black president with his black wife while celebrating black history.[6][11]

Shortly after she had the meeting with Michelle and Barack Obama, the video of her dancing with the two went viral online.[5] According to the local press, she has since been referred to as D.C.'s favorite centenarian and Grandma Virginia.[11]

On March 11, 2016, McLaurin received the President's Volunteer Service Award for her two decades of service to schoolchildren.[7] On May 27, 2016, she attended a Washington Nationals baseball game and was presented with a custom jersey on the field.[12]

In March 2019, McLaurin turned 110, becoming a supercentenarian.[11] She celebrated her previous birthdays from ages 106 to 109 with her favorite basketball team, the Harlem Globetrotters.[13][14]

In 2016, The Washington Post reported McLaurin was having trouble receiving a replacement photo ID from the Department of Motor Vehicles due to her advanced age.[4]

She had two children with her late husband: a daughter and a son. While the former is alive at 87 years old, her son has since died.[5] Despite this, she estimates she has about 50 living descendants. According to The Independent, "[h]er grandkids' grandchild has a baby."[5]