Retired CPS Teacher Throws Bash for 100-year-old Mom

By Chinta Strausberg

Every day is Mother’s Day for Dorothea Wooten, a retired Chicago Public high school teacher, who on Sunday, May 19, 2013, held a birthday party for her 100-year-old mother, Emma Warrick, she calls her family’s “treasurer” who has a heart “as big as the universe.”

Wooten, who taught school for 35-years, held the birthday party Sunday at Hardtimes Josephine’s Restaurant, 436 E. 79^th St., Chicago, IL where she was joined by hundreds of friends and family.

Born May 28, 1913 to a family of five in Hickory Valley, TN, according to aid her mother and a younger sister are the only surviving siblings.

Saying she will be forever grateful to her parents, Hezekiah and Emma Warrick, for helping her to reach her dream of becoming a teacher, Wooten said her mother worked as a maid in the south suburbs and later as a janitor for the Chicago Board of Education until she retired. She said her father passed when he was 92-years-old.

In celebrating her mother’s birthday, Wooten quoted her mom, “You know right from wrong. Do right. Treat people how you want to be treated and then leave everything in God’s hands.”

Because mothers are so very special, Wooten added, “I think my mother is the greatest mother I have every met in my whole life, and I am indebted to her for all that she has done not only for me but for my other brothers and sisters and our extended family. She has the heart of our universe. We call her our family treasure.”

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.