Black Resilience As Seen In Some Supercentenarians

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

More Blacks are living to age 100, including Kathleen Owens Simmons who celebrated her 100th birthday in June in a senior living facility in Norfolk.

Simmons grew up in Suffolk, rode a worn-down bus, dubbed the “Ol’ Grey Goose,” to a segregated Suffolk school, and worked in a greeting card factory in Brooklyn after high school before meeting her husband, military policeman Opel Simmons, in Newport News.

After Opel Simmons retired from the U.S. Army in 1963, the Simmons family relocated to Portsmouth and joined New Bethel Baptist Church. There, Kathleen Simmons served as an usher and a member of the senior choir and was eventually ordained a deaconess.

Simmons brings Black resilience sharply into focus, as more Blacks are living to age 100.

Recently, the New Journal and Guide paid tribute to Suffolk native and Army veteran Deacon Tommie Lawrence who credited his faith for his 106th birthday which he  celebrated on Saturday (Aug. 16) with family, friends, and community leaders at Poplar Run Baptist Church.

A few other long-lifers making the news include Illaree “Mother” Triplet of St. Louis (105),  Pearl Taylor, a Harlem native and retired nurse (103), Susie Dotson of Columbus, Ga. (101), and Gladys Williams of Washington, D.C., who celebrated her 100th birthday on Aug. 11.

All of these super centenarians experienced personal trauma and lived in sometimes turbulent political climates when they were young adults.

They also lived through Jim Crow. But they survived and attribute their resilience to believing in God and treating people right.

A 2024 research report showed older Hispanic, Asian, and Black adults in the US are more likely to reach age 100 compared to Whites.

In the report, which was published in The Journal of Internal Medicine on Dec. 4, 2024, researchers said, “From 2006 to 2019, the probability of survival from 70 and 80 years to age 100 was highest for the Hispanic population, followed by non-Hispanic Black and then non-Hispanic White populations. Probability of survival from age 90 to 100 years was similar for all but the non-Hispanic White population, which had a comparatively lower probability of survival.”

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Gladys Williams smiled and cheered as she celebrated her 100th birthday on Aug. 14, surrounded by family and friends in Washington, D.C. Williams is a retired registered nurse who has lived in Washington D.C. for the past 60 years.

“God has blessed me every day of my life. I am so thankful. But the only thing I can say that I know with truth is, the Lord is my shepherd and every day I wake up – it’s my birthday,” Williams told the AFRO American newspaper in a recent interview.

When asked if she’d live her life differently if given the chance, Williams has one answer:

“If I had it to do over again, I’d do it the same way.”

Another example of Black resilience is 105-year-old Illaree “Mother” Triplet, who lives in St. Louis, and was interviewed by The St. Louis American. She relocated from Arkansas to St. Louis in the 1940s during the Great Migration.

At her recent 105th birthday celebration with family and friends at Christ Community Temple Church of God in Christ in St. Louis, Illaree “Mother” Triplet traced her longevity back to her faith in God, similar to how 104-year-old Pearl Taylor, a Harlem native and retired nurse who lives in Dayton, Ohio traces her longevity back to her faith in God and drinking green juice, a recipe that she shares on TikTok, where she’s known as the “Jamaican grandma.”

Taylor said love is the key to her longevity in an interview with NBC Today.  “I really love myself. You have got to think about yourself first. You help yourself first.”

Every other day, Pearl Taylor still drinks a glass of green juice that contains fresh aloe vera chopped into cubes, kale, parsley, ginger, celery, one teaspoon of powdered greens she buys from a health food store, water, and sweetener for the taste – Taylor uses Splenda, according to Today.

Another example of Black resilience was Elizabeth Francis, who migrated from Louisiana to Houston, where she died at age 115 in Houston last year. She attributed her longevity to God. “It’s not my secret. It’s the good Lord’s blessing. I just thank God I’m here.”

Before she died at age 115 in 2024, Francis said the key to her longevity was speak your mind and don’t stress.

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