In less than one month, Lenora Delores Ming-Cobb will celebrate 100 years of life with family, friends, great health and cake.
On March 8, Cobb’s family will throw her a surprise celebration in honor of her 100th birthday at The Forum Caterers in west Baltimore, where she will spend the evening with nearly 200 friends and family and share her secret to a long life: hard work and love.
Born on March 8, 1914 in a small town in Alabama, Cobb spent most of her younger years in Albany, Ga., where she was the oldest of four girls.
She married Leroy Cobb in the 1930’s, amid the Great Depression.
“She never smoked, she never drank. Never,” Louise Keating, Cobb’s daughter, told the AFRO. “She just lived a clean life and loved to work.”
Keating said although her mother was a homemaker, she made it her business. She said Cobb loves to garden, cook, clean, help people and travel.
“She was always working, she always had the strength to do it,” Keating said.
Cobb has been a member of Zion Baptist Church since moving to Baltimore in 1944 and is currently the oldest living member of the church. She told the AFRO she enjoys being surrounded by those she loves.
Before Cobb’s husband passed in 1989 at the age of 77, Keating said her parents enjoyed going to church weekly and attending several church affairs.
“They also enjoyed driving to Alabama every summer for family reunions,” Keating recalled. “They never stopped at a hotel and my father did all the driving for many trips.”
Preparations are underway as Cobb’s family prepares to mark a milestone for a woman Keating called the rock of the family. She said the family is in the process of honing in on decorations, food and overall décor.
Keating said her mother moved to Baltimore for a better life for their family, and that’s exactly what she got. She said the birthday party is a “time for her to see some family members she hasn’t seen in a while,” and a time for her to enjoy a day all her own.
