Still surrounded by neighbors, children, Boozer turns 108

“Everywhere I look there’s children,” she said, laughing. “But I like children.”

Bolden said she raised her own children, and she helped raise other children who spent time at their home as well.

“Mama used to cook for the whole neighborhood,” Bolden said. “If somebody didn’t have food, it didn’t matter if they were white or black, she’d say ‘People aren’t a color. If they’re hungry they’ve got to eat,’ and she’d fix them a bag to take home.”

Boozer was about 15 and a student in school when she began working in the homes of white families after school – cleaning, cooking, ironing or watching after children. Later, when she married and had children, her mother would keep her babies so she could continue to work.

She cooked supper for the Sanders Football Team before their Friday night games and has always been well-known for her hard work and quick wit.

She spends time on the porch when it’s not so hot and her few outings include the doctor’s office, where she puts up a show of telling them they need to stop mashing her and taking her blood.

Photo by Judith Brown

“I tell them I’m not going to come back but they just laugh and tell me I’m funny,” Boozer said, with a bit of false indignation.

Bolden claims her mother has always enjoyed making people laugh and enjoys the attention, and while she’s slowed down dramatically, that part of her personality has not changed a bit.

Bolden said neither of them, nor her own daughter Darlene Bolden who works in a nursing home, ever got sick with Covid and they are grateful for that.

“She didn’t even catch a cold,” Bolden said, “and it’s all because of the merciful Father that she’s still here.”

This story originally ran Page 1 of the Wednesday, July 16, 2025 issue of The Laurens County Advertiser.