Emma Didlake
Obama Meets America’s Oldest Living Veteran
The President meets with Emma Didlake, believed to be the country’s oldest living veteran. President Barack Obama opened the Oval Office to a 110-year-old Detroit woman believed to be the nation’s oldest veteran on Friday. Obama says Emma Didlake’s service is a reminder of the sacrifices made by those who fought in World War II or supported those did. ‘It’s a great reminder of not only the sacrifices that the greatest generation made on our behalf but also the kind of trailblazing that our women veterans made,’ Obama said, according to CBS. ‘We are so grateful that she is here with us today.’
110 Year Old World War II Veteran Visits Obama in Oval Office By Staff Black Women July 20, 2015
In what he described later in a tweet as meeting a “true American hero,” President Barack Obama welcomed Emma Didlake, a 110-year-old Detroit woman into the Oval Office on Friday, according to Yahoo News.
NBC News reports that Didlake, who is thought to be the nation’s oldest living veteran, joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1943. The native of Boligee, Alabama, who was born in 1905, was a 38-year-old wife and mother of five when she decided to serve her country during World War II.
“We are so grateful that she is here with us today. And it’s a great reminder of not only the sacrifices that the Greatest Generation made on our behalf, but also the kind of trailblazing that our women veterans made, African American veterans who helped to integrate our Armed Services,” ABC News reports the president said. “We are very, very proud of them so that’s why we’ve got to make sure we do right by them.”
Obama said of Didlake, who held the rank of Private and served for seven months stateside as a driver, that she “served with distinction and honor, and received all sorts of commendations for her service.”
Didlake was the recipient of a lifetime achievement award two years ago from the local chapter of the NAACP. NBC News reports that she joined the NAACP after WWII and in 1963, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She also earned the Women’s Army Corps Service Medal, American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal and traveled around the world, the report continues.
Didlake, who was one of 15 children, moved to Lynch, Kentucky with her family before getting married in 1922, according to ABC News. She attributed her great longevity to eating fruits and vegetables and not much meat in a recent newspaper interview.
The news outlet reports that a remedy Didlake also attributes to her good health is soaking nine golden raisins in a pint of vodka each evening, which she then lets sit overnight, before eating them the following afternoon.
Sitting in her wheelchair wearing a patriotic-themed neck scarf, Didlake occupied the same spot in the Oval Office as several foreign leaders who have met with the president, according to the Daily Mail. As a scrum of reporters and photographers rushed in, Obama told Didlake, “Don’t worry about these folks.”
Didlake was accompanied by her granddaughter, Marilyn Home, who told the Detroit News that the family knows her as “Big Mama.” Of her grandmother’s meeting with Obama, Home added, “She was totally amazed. We both were. He is such a beautiful person. To see him standing so close…”
“It’s a beautiful honor for our family,” Home continued. “We’re just overwhelmed about everything. And the fact that she’s able to know what’s going on – not to just bring her here and she don’t know what’s happening – she knows. She’ll tell you.”
ABC News reports that the Honor Flight Network provided Didlake with her first Honor Flight on her visit to Washington, D.C. Apart from her stop at the White House, she will be visiting the WWII Memorial and the FDR memorial and the group is surprising her with a stop at the MLK Memorial.
http://naturallymoi.com/2015/07/110-year-old-world-war-ii-veteran-visits-obama-in-oval-office/
