McLaurin, Virginia, 1909?-2022

Virginia McLaurin, who was born into a family of Black sharecroppers in the Jim Crow South and took a star turn as a centenarian when she danced with Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House, died on Monday at her home in Olney, Md.

She was 113 by her own accounting, although she did not have a birth certificate. Ms. McLaurin lived quietly in Washington for decades before her life took an unexpected turn in February 2016, when she joined a star-studded list of guests attending a Black History Month reception at the White House. Upon entering a room where President and Mrs. Obama were waiting to greet her, she raised her hands and yelled, “Hi!” As President Obama held her arms, she began dancing in place, supported by her cane.

“I thought I would never live to get in the White House,” she said, slowly and carefully, as the Obamas chirped encouragement. She added that she was “so happy” to have a Black couple living there. Virginia Lugenia Campbell’s exact birth date is unclear. She said she believed it had been recorded in a family Bible as March 12, 1909, The Washington Post reported. According to a 2016 letter from a vital records department in South Carolina, which Ms. Menkart provided to The New York Times, she was said to have been born on March 12, 1916. But the letter also noted that no birth records for her had been found between the years 1915 and 1920.

What is clear is that Virginia was born in Cheraw, a small city in South Carolina. Her father, John Oliver Campbell, died when she was 1, according to Ms. Menkart. Her mother, Flora Ella McQueen, taught her to sew. She was widowed twice, and she got her surname from one of her husbands, Marshall McLaurin, Mr. Cardoso said. She had two children from a relationship with a man named Willie Johnson Sr., Idamae Streeter and Willie Jr. She began to raise Mr. Cardoso when he was 3 years old and later adopted him, and the two lived together in Olney, Mr. Cardoso said.

Virginia McLaurin, a daughter of Black sharecroppers who, as a centenarian, became an internet celebrity with her exuberant dance upon meeting Barack and Michelle Obama in 2016, her moves the expression of boundless joy at seeing an African American family in the White House, died Nov. 14 at her son’s home in Olney, Md. She was believed to be 113. Ms. McLaurin grew up in South Carolina during the Jim Crow era, received no formal schooling beyond the eighth grade and came to Washington in 1939. She worked as a nanny, a laundress, a seamstress and a house cleaner, never imagining, she said, that the racial order of American society would change. Virginia Lugnia Campbell was born in Cheraw, S.C., her delivery assisted by a midwife. South Carolina had no official record of her birth, according to her son, but Ms. McLaurin said she believed her birth date to have been recorded in a family Bible as March 12, 1909. Government documents later issued to her recorded the year of her birth as 1916 or 1917, her son said. Ms. McLaurin’s son said that she was married three times, including to Marshall McLaurin and Willie Johnson Sr. She and Johnson had two children, including a surviving daughter, Idamae Streeter of the District, and a son who predeceased Ms. McLaurin, Willie Johnson Jr. When Obama, the first African American president, met with Ms. McLaurin on Feb. 18, 2016, during a White House commemoration of Black History Month, their encounter seemed to embody the arc of history. “It’s an honor. It’s an honor,” Ms. McLaurin exclaimed.

Holding her hand as he escorted her to meet the first lady, Obama jokingly admonished the jubilant Ms. McLaurin to slow down. Not heeding his advice, she broke into a dance, which the Obamas quickly joined.

“I thought I would never live to get in the White House,” Ms. McLaurin declared, “and I tell you, I am so happy. A Black president. A Black wife. And I’m here to celebrate Black history.”

Virginia Lugenia McLaurin[4] (nee Campbell, March 12, 1909[a] – November 14, 2022) was an American community volunteer and a semi-supercentarian or a supercentenarian, since her birth certificate was not found but she is believed to have been born between 1909 and 1917.[4] Being born under the Jim Crow Laws, such fact is not unusual, the public records at the time for Black and Native Americans were sometimes missing or inaccurate.[6][7][8]

A resident of Washington, D.C., she gained notability after a video of her dancing with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House went viral, where she attended to receive the President's Volunteer Service Award for her service to the community on February 18, 2016, during a reception held for annual Black History Month, and also for her longevity claim, which although reported extensively by the media press remained unsourced by government and official records. McLaurin was born to a Black family of sharecroppers in Cheraw, South Carolina, her father John Oliver Campbell died when she was one and her mother Flora Ella McQueen taught her to sew She had two children with her late husband; as of 2016, her daughter was alive at 83 years old; her son had died.[3] 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.[3]

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.[10]

On March 12, 2019, McLaurin turned 110 years old, becoming a supercentenarian.[2] She celebrated her previous birthdays from ages 106 to 109 with her favorite basketball team, the Harlem Globetrotters.[18][19]

McLaurin died at her home in Olney, Maryland, on November 14, 2022, at the claimed age of 113.[12]