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NORFOLK, Va. — A Virginia woman not only celebrated good health on Thursday, but she also celebrated 106 years of life.
Dorothy Southall was born in Whaleyville — a small neighborhood in Suffolk on Sept. 5, 1918. That's two years before women received the right to vote and two months before the end of World War I.
Not long after the war, Southall and her father moved to Pennsylvania during the First Great Migration, also known as the Black Migration, which involved 6 million African Americans traveling from the south to the western and northern regions for better opportunities.
Throughout her life, Southall has seen and lived through historical events such as the attack on Pearl Harbor when she was just 23, and when the Civil Rights Movement was just gaining momentum in 1959 when she was 41.
During the Civil Rights Movement, Southall worked as a licensed practical nurse at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York. She served her community as a health care worker for 20 years before moving back to Virginia in the late 1980s where she would live on her own and manage her own finances until she was 103.
After suffering from a fall that led to an emergency room visit, Southall remained in the care of Karen Spencer, who assisted her and her family with care coordination, care navigation, education on community resources and much more.
In August 2023, while living with her family, Southall was discharged from hospice because she deemed too healthy and no longer met the requirements. When admitted into residential care this summer in Norfolk, Southall said she "felt like she was home" when she arrived.
She is visited often by her niece and other family members.
Living for as long as she has that she may has some thoughts about society today and how much it has changed and progressed. Her thoughts and advice to the younger generation, "Well, you've just got to go with it."
