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Photo By Yvonne Kemp
Maggie “Idea” Vance celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends on Saturday, April 21, 2018, at the Carter Conference Center at Holy Redeemer COGIC.
She was born in Wilmot, AR on April 17, 1918. She moved to Milwaukee in 1949. She held various jobs through the years at nursing homes and the dietary department of Mt. Sinai hospital, to name a few. She was very active in the community, going door-to-door in the 1950’s and 60’s working on voter registration. She was a member at Philadelphia MBC under the late Rev. H. Henderson; she was a member of Genesis MBC under Rev. A.L. Douglas, Jr., and is presently a member of Greater Love MBC under Pastor Frank Ballantine. When she first moved to the city in the late 1940’s, she lived on 7th Street. She moved on 23rd and Walnut Street in the late 1950’s where she purchased two homes and moved her daughter and six children into one of the homes and she lived in the other. She lost her only daughter in July, 1972 in a car-train accident. Without hesitation she moved into the home with the six children and got them to adulthood.
Mrs. Maggie Vance witnessed two World Wars, the Great Depression, 20 U.S. Presidents, including voting in the election of the first African American President Barack Obama, the Apollo Moon Landing, and remarkable advances in medicine and technology.
As you can see, Maggie has accomplished and seen a lot with only a 5th grade education and the Lord on her side.
