Virginia Lugenia McLaurin (née Campbell, March 12, 1909? – November 14, 2022) was an American community volunteer and a semi-supercentarian or a

supercentenarian A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is a person who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of major age-related diseases u ...

, since her birth certificate was not located (or her official birthdate not recorded) and she is believed to have been born between 1909 and 1917. Being born under the

Jim Crow Laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

, such fact is not unusual, as the public records at the time for

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

and Native Americans were sometimes missing or inaccurate. A resident of Washington, D.C., she gained notability after a video of her dancing with President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

and First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

went viral, where she attended to receive the

President's Volunteer Service Award The President's Volunteer Service Award is a civil award bestowed by the President of the United States. Established by executive order by George W. Bush, the award was established to honor volunteers that give hundreds of hours per year helping ...

for her service to the community on February 18, 2016, during a reception held for annual

Black History Month Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...

, and also for her

longevity claim Longevity claims are unsubstantiated cases of asserted human longevity. Those asserting lifespans of 110 years or more are referred to as supercentenarians. Many have either no official verification or are backed only by partial evidence. Cases ...

, which although reported extensively by the media press remained unsourced by government and official records.

Biography

Early life

McLaurin was born to a Black family of sharecroppers in

Cheraw, South Carolina Cheraw ( , ) is a city on the Pee Dee River in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 5,040 at the 2020 census. The greater Cheraw area in the zip code 29520 has a population of 13,689 according to the 2019 ACS ...

; her father John Oliver Campbell died when she was one and her mother Flora Ella McQueen taught her to sew. She stated "My Grandfather was

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

minister, and my father was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

". According to McLaurin, she "was birthed by a

midwife A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...

and the birthday put in a Bible somewhere." In her childhood, she worked in the fields with her parents, shucking corn and picking cotton. She grew up during the Jim Crow era when racial segregation was widespread throughout the Southern United States. Never receiving an education past third grade, McLaurin got married at 13 and later moved to New Jersey as part of the Great Migration. Widowed when her husband was killed in a

bar fight Street fighting is hand-to-hand combat in public places, between individuals or groups of people. The venue is usually a public place (e.g. a street) and the fight sometimes results in serious injury or occasionally even death. Some street fig ...

, she moved to Washington D.C. to be closer to her sister in 1939. Around this time she took responsibility for a three-year-old boy after his father had remarried and the new wife did not want to take on the child. McLaurin formally adopted the boy when he was aged 14. In her career, she worked as a seamstress, as a domestic helper for families in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 censu ...

, and managed a laundry shop.

Community volunteer

From the early 1980s, McLaurin volunteered forty hours per week at Roots Public Charter School through

AmeriCorps Seniors AmeriCorps Seniors is a United States government program run by the agency Corporation for National and Community Service. The program engages volunteers aged 55 and older to serve their communities. There are over 200,000 volunteers nationwide. ...

. She joined the United Planning Organization Foster Grandparent Program in October 1994. In 2013, she received a volunteer community service award from

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Vincent C. Gray Vincent Condol Gray (born November 8, 1942) is an American politician who served as the mayor of the District of Columbia from 2011 to 2015. He served for one term, losing his bid for reelection in the Democratic primary to D.C. Council member ...

. After a TV crew publicized the fact that her apartment was infested with

bed bug Bed bugs are insects from the genus ''Cimex'' that feed on blood, usually at night. Their bites can result in a number of health impacts including skin rashes, psychological effects, and allergic symptoms. Bed bug bites may lead to skin changes ...

s in 2014, a local pest control company got rid of the infestation and gave her a free bed.

Meeting the Obamas

Towards the end of the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

, friends of McLaurin recommended to members of the Obama administration that she meet with the President due to her extensive history of volunteering. In February 2016, the White House hosted McLaurin in celebration of Black History Month. Upon meeting the President and First Lady, McLaurin gave them both hugs and started dancing with them. She would later say in interviews that she never felt that she would live to visit the White House, and she never thought there would be a day she would get to meet a Black President with his Black wife while celebrating Black history. Shortly after her meeting with the Obamas, the video of her dancing with the two went viral online. According to the local press, she was afterwards referred to as D.C.'s favorite centenarian and Grandma Virginia. On March 11, 2016, McLaurin received the President's Volunteer Service Award for her two decades of service to schoolchildren. On May 27, 2016, she attended a

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

baseball game and was presented with a custom jersey on the field.

Personal life and longevity

She had two children with her late husband; as of 2016, her daughter was alive at 83 years old; her son had died. Despite this, she estimated she had about 50 living descendants. At least one of her grandchildren had a great-grandchild, making her a great-great-great-grandmother. In 2016, McLaurin had trouble obtaining a replacement photo ID from the Washington, D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles because of bureaucratic difficulties in getting a copy of her birth certificate from South Carolina. On March 12, 2019, McLaurin allegedly turned 110 years old, becoming a

. She celebrated her previous birthdays from ages 106 to 109 with her favorite basketball team, the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of i ...

. McLaurin died at her home in

Olney, Maryland Olney is a U.S. census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located in the north central part of the county, north of Washington, D.C. Olney was largely agricultural until the 1960s, when growth of ...

, on November 14, 2022, at the claimed age of 113.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaurin, Virginia Longevity claims 2022 deaths People from Cheraw, South Carolina Activists from South Carolina Activists from Washington, D.C. American supercentenarians African-American centenarians American centenarians Women supercentenarians 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women African-American activists Articles containing video clips 1909 births