Happy 105th Birthday Aunt Janie

Photo At About Age – 45

Mother’s Day Sun, May 14, 2023
Photo At Age – 104

Youth is a gift of Nature

But Age is a work of Art

By Stanislaw Jarzy Lec

Tribute to Janie Leona Harvey Grant

Age – 105

Wed. Mar. 06, 2024

“Matriarch”

The definition of a matriarch is a woman who is the head of a family or is a powerful mother figure to her family or descendants.

One is a mother not because she can gestate and give birth, but because of what she tries to do—love, encourage, inspire, teach, nourish and nurture.

Today, I am here to tell you about a woman with a heart of rainbows and kindness, a woman who has conquered struggles since the day she was born, a woman with a quiet and kind spirit yet a mysterious intriguing calmness.

At the age of 20, on September 2^nd 1914 in Northampton Co., North Carolina, Mida Jacobs and William Daniel Harvey Sr. were married.

They had 10 children, 8 lived to maturity.

2 of those children were twin girls.

The North Carolina Birth Index list their date of birth as March 6, 1920.

When Aunt Janet and Aunt Janie started school, their mother, Aunt Mida went to Jackson to get their birth certificates. Aunt Janie says that she realized that the registrations were incorrect. They were not born on March 6, 1920 as recorded, but were born on March 6, 1919. Aunt Mida did not contest the mistake, nor did she bring it to anyone’s attention, because, “what difference did it make anyway”? This was long before Social Security.

The twin’s names were Janet Ruth Harvey and Janie Leona Harvey. The first born, Janet Ruth, married John Williams on the 16^th of March 1942 in Rich Square, North Carolina. She passed as a widow on the 2^nd of July 1994 in Rich Square, North Carolina.

The 2^nd born of the twins, Janie Leona Harvey, married Roosevelt Grant on the 7^th of January 1946 in Jackson, North Carolina. Janie and Roosevelt did not have any biological children but adopted 2 children, Johnnie Mae Grant and Rosie Lee Grant. After 56 years of marriage, Janie’s husband, Roosevelt, died on the 16^th of June 2002 in Ahoskie, North Carolina.

Janie Leona Harvey Grant
of
Rich Square, Northampton Co., North Carolina
The daughter of William Daniel Harvey and Mida Jacobs
the granddaughter of William Henry Harvey and Rebecca Scott Harvey
is
the oldest living member of our Harvey clan.

Throughout her 100+ years, Aunt Janie has always been known to have been a quiet person with a compassionate heart to all who knew her. She has been an indispensable resource of wisdom and guidance for her family and friends. She enriches the life of all who come in contact with her no matter how short the time.

Aunt Janie has consistently contributed love, support and assistance through-out her life to her community and to all who knew her and has given strength, empowerment and authenticated love of family for all of us.

Aunt Janie is not a woman of many words but is adamant when she has something to say. She is soft spoken and has lived a long and fruitful life.

• Aunt Janie has lived through the administration of 19 Presidents;

28^th – Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)               29^th – Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
30^th – Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)                   31^st – Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
32^nd – Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)        33^rd – Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)
34^th – Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)       35^th – John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
36^th – Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)             37^th – Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
38^th – Gerald Ford (1974-1977)                         39^th – Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
40^th – Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)                    41^st – George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)
42^nd – Bill Clinton (1993-2001)                           43^rd – George W. Bush (2001-2009)
44^th – Barack Obama (2009-2017)                     45^th – Donald Trump (2017-2021)
                                              46^th – Joe Biden (2021-Present)   

• In 1920, just one year after Aunt Janie was born, the 18^th Amendment to the U.S. constitution was passed creating the era of Prohibition.
• On August 18, 1920, the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified prohibiting any U.S. citizen from being denied the right to vote based on sex.On June 2, 1924,
• President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
• In 1925, Sears and Roebuck opened its first store. Aunt Janie was 6 years old.
• In 1931 the Empire State building, in New York City, opened when she was 12 yrs. old.
• In 1932, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
• In 1935, when she was 16, the first canned beer was sold.
• When she was 18 in 1937, Federal Old Age Pensions (Social Security) were first collected and the first one-time lump sum payment was made.
• We entered WWII in 1941, when she was a young lady of 22.
• In 1947, when I was born, the S. minimum wage was 40 cents per hour and Aunt Janie was 28.
• She had so much unrequited love in her heart, that in 1948, at the age of 29 she took to her bosom her first daughter Johnnie Mae Grant Edwards.
• In 1949, when she was 30, the first 45 RPM vinyl record was released.
• In 1954 she experienced Hurricane Hazel, one of the strongest storms in North Carolina history, but still overflowing with love, she took her 2^nd daughter, Rosie Lee Grant Thomas, into her home to love and nurture. She was 35.
• Cold War tensions arose early in the decade of the 60’s with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war and at the age of 43 Aunt Janie persevered.
• In 1963, John F. Kennedy, our 35^th President of the U.S. was assassinated.
• In May 1965, she experienced the death of her father, William Daniel, she was 46.
• And in 1968, at the age of 49, along with our country, Aunt Janie suffered the traumatic murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts made history when the first man landed on the moon. Aunt Janie was 50.
• In 1971, the 26^th Amendment was ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. Aunt Janie was 52.
• In 1974 when Aunt Janie was 55, our 37^th President, Richard M. Nixon became our first president in history to resign from office
• 1981 IBM releases its first Personal Computer, and Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice in history, Aunt Janie was 62. 
• She went through the death of her brother Herman Leroy in 1985 when she was 66.
• In April 1989she endured the death of her mother, Mida, the devastation of Hurricane Hugo on North Carolina in September and the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November. She was 70.
• In July 1993, when she was 74 years old, Janie endured the death of her eldest sister Sadie.
• 1 year and 12 days later in July 1994 she experienced the heart wrenching death of her twin sister, Janet. Janie was of 75.
• On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center in New York was attacked. Terrorists killed nearly 3,000 and injured more than 6,000 people. This was the worst attack against the U.S. in our nation’s history.
• In 2002, she lost her heart and soulmate of 56 years, her husband, Roosevelt, when she was 83 years old.
• Her youngest sister Elnora died in 2004. Aunt Janie was 85.
• She experienced the birth and development of “Social Media”, which was  influential during this decade with the popularity of social sharing websites like Myspace (2003) when she was 84, Facebook (2004) when she was 85, YouTube (2005) when she was 86, and Twitter (2006) when she was 87.
• in 2008, As a global financial crisis loomed, the United States made history electing Barack Hussein Obama as our 44^th and 1^st African-American President. Aunt Janie, at the age of 89, participated in this election.
• The decade ended with the 2008financial crisis, causing a recession as the housing bubble, auto industry, and banking systems collapsed in the U.S. and in several other developed nations around the world. 
• Her brother William Daniel Jr. died in 2010 when she was 91.
• Her sister Mable Ozella died in 2013. Aunt Janie was 94 years old.
• Her last sibling, Louise, died in 2014, the day before Aunt Janie’s 95^th

Since 2014 until the present, 2024, Aunt Janie has lived through and survived; an Ebola Epidemic, the U.S. restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba, Muhammad Ali’s death (1942-2016), the first visible solar eclipse in the U.S.to cross the entire continent in 99 years, the birth of the “# Me Too” movement, Prince Harry marriage to Meghan Markle, Simone Biles becoming the most decorated gymnast ever, the humpback whales recovery from near extinction, George Floyd being killed, Covid-19 Pandemic, United Kingdom officially withdrawing from the European Union, China elimination of Malaria, the inauguration of Kamala Harris (the 1^st female, the 1^st  African American and the 1^st  Asian American) to the office of Vice President of the Unite State,  Juneteenth becoming a nationally  recognized holiday, the deepening of the world’s humanitarian crises, the intensification of climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the promise and peril of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Israel’s attack by Hamas, the FDA approval of the first-ever gene editing treatment for use in humans (offering a cure for sickle cell disease), the first methane-fueled rocket launched into space, researchers discovering of a black hole that is 13.2 billion years old, India overtaking China to become the most populous country, UK introducing a drug with the potential to halve breast cancer rates, Pope Francis, for the first time, giving women the historic right to vote at an influential global meeting of bishops.

Through her longevity Aunt Janie has matured into a woman with a background of strength through adversity and change. For all of us, she has been that rock that remains when everything else in life is crumbling away.

She is a woman that teaches us every day to be thankful for who we are, where we are, where we come from, and above all for our family.

Aunt Janie, you have seen a multitude of changes and milestones in your lifetime. More than we have time to recount now,

We want you to know, “You” are “OUR” Matriarch and will always hold a special place in our hearts.

I would admonish our younger generation to talk to you.

Find out about your life and what has gone on before them.

I think they will be pleasantly surprised.

Aunt Janie, “You have been blessed”

“WE” are blessed to have You, and to have known You!

Thank you from all of us,
Your Community, Neighbors and Family!

Gloria E. Richardson Greene
1^st Cousin 1x removed
Daughter of Boston Richardson & Cora Willia Harvey Richardson
Granddaughter of Herman Harvey & Mattie Mabel Parks Harvey
Great Granddaughter of Wm. Henry Harvey & Rebecca Scott Harvey
March 2024

Posted By Jonathan Donald Harvey (Jon Doc)
Son of Gloria Nelda Harvey Robinson
Grandson of Lloyd Russell Harvey & Lula Virginia Tann Harvey
Great Grandson of William Henry Harvey & Rebeca Scott Harvey