Magnolia Jennings, 106, hailed by Gov. Quinn and Clerk Dorothy Brown

 

 

Surrounded by her family at the Waterfront Terrace Nursing Home on the South Side, Magnolia Jennings Thursday smiled as she cut her own cake while celebrating her 106^th birthday.

 

Born in Tchula, Mississippi,  Jennings, the mother of three, came to Chicago in 1945 where she married Curtis Jennings. They all preceded her in death with her husband passing in 1997, but Jennings is still going strong. She even tried to dance in her wheelchair to the music of Tiffany Renea and the Euphany Band.

 

According to Ruby Morris, marketing manager of the nursing home, Jennings’ favorite food is greens, and she spends her time crocheting, listening to gospel music and singing.

 

In an interview at the nursing home when asked if Jennings’ parents were slaves, Elaine Ennols, 65, her niece, said, “ I don’t know, but her parents were not slaves. Her mother had a very nice plot of land in Mississippi.  No one in my family spoke of slavery. My aunt talked about picking cotton, but my grandmother had her own land in Mississippi.

 

“She was not poor when she left the south. She had thousands of dollars when she left the south,” recalled Ennols. “When they came to Chicago in 1945, they bought a three-story home at 53^rd and Wells. They were not poor. Money was in our family. None of my uncles ever needed welfare. They had a nice home. I never heard of slavery from them and I spent my summers in Chicago,” recalled Ennols.

 

Ennols’ mother Thelma Montgomery, 88, the youngest of one of nine children, also said, “I cannot remember of anyone speaking of slavery in our family. One of my grandmothers was a midwife.” Ennols said she would get her daughter to do research on her family.

 

Jennings smiled and put her face down as Denise Cole read a proclamation from Gov. Pat Quinn, a community liaison for the nursing home was read. Quinn declared Thursday, August 15, 2013 as “Magnolia Jennings Day,” and praised Jennings for her consistent voting record and “commitment to civic engagement.”

 

Jennings, who never went past the fourth grade but was a housewife all of her married life, smiled again as a salute to her read by Treana Johnson, a public information specialist representing Dorothy Brown, Clerk of the Circuit Court.

 

Ennols brother, Leon Harris, 68, the nephew of Jennings and the son of Montgomery, said, “This is a real gift of God to have a person 106-years who lived a good clean life.”

 

Sitting by her sister, Thelma Montgomery, 88, and Lyvonne Miles, a niece who is a nurse, Montgomery cut her own cake and when asked by this reporter what was her wish, her eyes lit up and without batting an eye recited the entire Lord’s Prayer. Miles said Jennings “is a very religious woman. She loved the Lord and she loved going to church.”

 

Montgomery, the mother of nine children, said, “I feel great to be with my sister, 106-years old and I’m only 88. There are only two of us alive. “I love my sister.” 

 

Montgomery remembers her parents well. “They picked cotton and worked on the plantation.” Asked if they owned the land, and if her parents were slaves, Montgomery said, “They were not slaves, never. My grandmother was a midwife and my father worked on a farm. My dad worked on a farm and fished. I can’t complain about my family,” she said.

 

Ennols, the daughter of Montgomery who along with her husband owned a funeral home, said, Jennings “is very dear to me. She loves children and I do too. She has so much love for everyone and she loves God. She’s amazing.”

 

Asked her wish for Jennings, Ennols said, “I wish that God would continue to bless her with longevity and to keep the love she has in her heart.”

 

Morris and Howard Alter, administrator of the nursing home, called Jennings birthday “amazing” with Alter saying, “she is 106-years young, not old.” “Her mantra is to treat everybody well. Treat everybody in a God-like manner.” Morris said watching her grow old “is a blessing.”