|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Laura Ann Palmore recently reached a milestone many would love to accomplish as she celebrated her 100th birthday.
Her Richmond Heights community celebrated in style, starting with the praise team from Martin Memorial AME Church singing Happy Birthday outside her house n Saturday afternoon, May 21.
Originally from DeFuniak Springs, Palmore and her late husband Anthony Palmore were high school sweethearts who met through his sister. Her husband was an Air Force veteran and the couple were among the first families to settle in Richmond Heights, which was originally designed for Black military veterans returning from World War II in 1946. Mr. Palmore, who went on to become the first Black U.S. postmaster in Florida and worked at the Richmond Heights Post Office, passed away in 2009.
Mrs. Palmore assisted her husband as a mail clerk at the post office before becoming a physical therapist at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she retired after 19 years. Active in her community, she was the original founder of the Martin Memorial AME Church where she served as pianist, organist and first elder.
She has lived in the same home for 70 years, except when Hurricane Andrew caused the ceiling to collapse, leading the Palmores to live in a trailer in the back yard for a year.
“The hurricane tore it down,” she said. “Finally, it was repaired so we could live in the house once again.”
Palmore is the mother of eight children and aunt of Dr. Ava Parker, president of Palm Beach State College. Up until the pandemic she exercised regularly, despite having lost her sight.
She now relies on wheelchair assistance for longer excursions.
“The Lord has taken care of me,” Palmore said. “I don’t have any pain.”
Her daughter, Joy Palmore Wilcox, has lived with her mom for the past five years.
“She is a great mom,” Palmore Wilcox said. “Very supportive and reassuring. She always told us to put God first and we went to church every Sunday.”
One of the highlights of Palmore’s life was visiting Israel with her fellow church members at Martin Memorial AME Church in the 1980s.
“I went to Israel for three weeks and visited the Wailing Wall, got baptized in the Jordan River and I still have some water from the Dead Sea,” Palmore said.
On her 100th birthday, her children gathered to celebrate with a birthday cake. Her deepest wish is that her children follow the virtues and values she has instilled in them as Christians.
“I want to be an example for my children on how to live,” Palmore said. “I would like for my children to live right.”
