Emma Didlake has died at age 110.
Advertisement
“I was humbled and grateful to welcome Emma to the White House last month”, President Obama said in a statement.
Marilyn Horne, Didlake’s granddaughter, said Big Mama had been complaining of being exhausted the past few days and has been showing symptoms of failing this weekend, according to San Antonio Express News. She served about seven months stateside during the war, as a private and driver. “Michelle and I ship our deepest condolences to Emma’s household, buddies, and everybody she impressed over her lengthy and quintessentially American life”.
During her visit to the White House, Didlake wore a patriotic-themed neck scarf and sat in her wheelchair in the same spot in the Oval Office where foreign leaders sit when they meet with Obama.
After Didlake was honorably discharged from the military, she and her family moved from her native Alabama to Detroit, where she became a force in the civil rights movement. In 1943, she took a barrier-breaking step — joining the Army, at a time most women stayed at home, and defying widespread racism and segregation. Her family moved eventually to Lynch, Ky.
The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp World War II veteran outlived her husband and five children.
“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”, Obama said.
Advertisement
After her service, she joined the NAACP and also marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., in Detroit, Michigan.
