December 23, 2009 - Ann Nixon Cooper, the centenarian lauded by President Obama last year in his election night speech as someone who had witnessed “the heartbreak and the hope” of the past
century, died Monday in Atlanta. She was 107.
Her death was confirmed by Carl M. Williams Funeral Directors of Atlanta. The Atlanta-Journal
Constitution said Ms. Cooper died in the home she had lived in since 1938.
“This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations,” Mr. Obama said on Nov.
4, 2008, in his victory speech in Grant Park in Chicago. “But one that’s on my mind tonight is about a woman who
cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this
election, except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
“She was born just a generation past slavery,” Mr. Obama continued, “a time when there were no cars on
the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and
because of the color of her skin.”
Ms. Cooper’s autobiography, “A Century and Some Change: My Life Before the President Called My Name,”
written with Karen Grigsby Bates, is scheduled to be released in January by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, in honor of her 108th birthday.
Ann Nixon was born on Jan. 9, 1902, in Bedford County, Tenn., near Nashville, the daughter of tenant farmers. She met her
future husband, Dr. Albert Berry Cooper II, while he attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Atria Books said. They settled in his hometown, Atlanta, where he established a successful dental practice.
He died in 1967. Of their four children, one survives, Joyce Bobo, 84. Survivors also include 15 grandchildren.
Ms. Cooper first registered to vote on Sept. 1, 1941, but because of segregation did not vote for years, The Associated
Press reported.
(Source)
