“I was so happy to meet the Black president,” Virginia McLaurin said after the meeting. “It was the joy of my entire life. I can die smiling now.”
Virginia McLaurin, a Black woman who charmed people the world over with her joyful reaction to meeting the Obamas when she was 106, died on Monday. She was 113.
“She had been under hospice care for a few days,” McLaurin’s family wrote on a Facebook page that had been sharing updates about her life since she went viral. “She lived an incredibly full life and appreciated all the love she received from people on this FB page and everywhere she went.”
Meeting the first Black president had been McLaurin’s big wish, she told NBC Washington in 2014 when she was honored at a DC event for her work spending 40 hours per week volunteering with local students with mental and physical disabilities.
“I didn’t think I’d live to see a Black president,” McLaurin said at the event.
Two years later, her wish came true when she was invited to the White House in 2016 to meet former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as part of celebrations for Black History Month.
Upon being introduced to the president, McLaurin immediately let out an excited “Hi!” and began dancing with excitement.
Comments are closed.