Atlanta honors 104-year-old Georgia Ann Reed

Georgia Ann Reed, who at 105 is one of Atlanta’s oldest residents, was honored this week by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the Atlanta City Council.

A resident of Atlanta for nearly 60 years, Reed (no relation to Mayor Reed) was born in 1906 in rural Alabama, where she picked cotton, worked as a midwife and drove a mule. After moving to Atlanta in the late 1950s, she had to adjust to life in the big city.

“In Alabama, we used to cook in large black cooking pots that caused a lot of smoke,” she said. “The first time we tried to cook here, the Atlanta Police Department came and told us it was a safety hazard.”