DEL.ICIO.USAtlanta woman turns 108
Dollie Wilson Parks celebrated with family, friends and Ebenezer Baptist Church members
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Her friends call her Miss Dollie, a measure of respect due any lady turning 108 years old.
“She’s a darling person,” Katie Taylor said of Dollie Wilson Parks. “I’ve known her for years and years and years and years.”
Todd R. McQueen / AJC
Dollie Wilson Parks ponders her cake during her 108th birthday at the Piccadilly in Greenbriar Mall.
Todd R. McQueen / AJC
Parks was born in Coweta on August 3, 1900 and is the daughter of a master cotton picker.
Todd R. McQueen / AJC
Parks looks radiant with her hat and broach while celebrating her birthday.
The longtime Atlanta resident is an inspiration and adviser to generations, those close to her said.
“She’s done what is right,” Taylor said. “That’s one thing that’ll prolong your days – treating people right, treating people the way you wish to be treated.”
Friends, relatives and fellow church members from Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church gathered Saturday at the Piccadilly cafeteria in Greenbriar Mall to celebrate Parks’ birthday.
About 75 people packed a private room for the occasion. Parks wore a black hat, light blue jacket and dark dress with a flower pattern.
“She looks so pretty,” Lydia Walker, an Ebenezer church member and friend, commented as Parks was wheeled into the room.
Parks was serenaded with song, poetry and stories about her life. She was known for serving guests with chocolate brownies, sweet potato pie and plenty of frank advice.
Mary Elizabeth Adams, Parks’ great-niece, recalled her aunt chastising her for wearing a short dress to church. Parks told Adams that short dresses made her feet look big, a thought that stuck in her mind when she considered wearing a short dress again.
“She’s really sharp on a lot of things,” Adams said.
Parks did not speak much at her birthday, but she was well aware of the event. She nodded as folks wished her “happy birthday.” She grabbed for her purse when she realized some of the cards had money in them.
Parks keeps a close eye on her money, said Mary Frances Adams, Parks’ niece and caretaker. In recent months, she said, she’s started taking more naps, but she still has her wits and much of her physical health.
For her birthday dinner, Parks had beef noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy, potato salad, corn bread and a slice of cake. With a little assistance, she blew out the candles on the cake.
“She’s a miracle,” Mary Frances Adams said.
Thursday, at Mary Frances Adams’ Atlanta home where Parks now lives, friends and family talked of her life. Parks has difficulty hearing and was unable to be interviewed.
Born a child of cotton pickers in 1900 in Coweta County, Parks came into the world before the days of autos, airplanes and radios. Atlanta’s population was about 89,000.
Janie Johnson said her great-aunt joined her parents and 14 siblings in the cotton fields from the time she was a small child. She moved to Atlanta in her 20s and got a job at Rich’s downtown department store, making salads and baking brownies. She worked there for 44 years, going to school at night.
Parks joined Ebenezer in the 1930s, then led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. She lived near the Kings and has been close with the family, Johnson said.
Christine King Farris, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s only living sibling, said of Parks: “She’s very lucid, even at this age. She always recognizes me and gives me a big hug.”
Jacob Hunter, a church deacon, said Parks was a “surrogate mother” to Ebenezer’s children. “Parents felt very good about leaving their children in her care. They knew they were well taken care of.”
As for the adults, “she’s not one of those who tells you what you want to hear,” said Paul Brown, another church deacon. “She tells you what you need to hear in order to get your life together.”
Married twice, Parks had one child, a son who was killed in an auto accident in 1972. Parks lived with her sister Rosa Wilson from 1937 until Wilson’s death in 2002.
Parks continued to live in her own home on Howell Street near the church with the assistance of nieces until this year, when she moved in with Mary Frances Adams in the Adamsville neighborhood.
Parks may be the fourth-oldest living Georgian. The Gerontology Research Group, which tracks people 110 years and older, knows of three women in the state over 110. One of them, Besse Cooper of Walton County, turns 112 on Tuesday.
Johnson is writing a book about her great-aunt and has put together a DVD that her nonprofit group, Future Leaders Now, is selling as a fund-raiser.
“Her life has not been a crystal stair,” Johnson said, “but she has walked up every one of those steps and made it to the top.”
News researcher Richard Hallman contributed to this article.
