Centenarian who danced with the Obamas
Virginia McLaurin — a daughter of Black sharecroppers who, as a centenarian, became an internet celebrity with her exuberant dance upon meeting Barack and Michelle Obama in 2016, her moves the expression of boundless joy at seeing an African-American family in the White House — died Nov. 14 at her son’s home in Olney, Md. She was believed to be 113.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said her son, Felipe Cardoso.
McLaurin grew up in South Carolina during the Jim Crow era, received no formal schooling beyond the eighth grade and came to Washington in 1939. She worked as a nanny, a laundress, a seamstress and a house cleaner, never imagining, she said, that the racial order of American society would change.
When Obama, the first African-American president, met with McLaurin on Feb. 18, 2016, during a White House commemoration of Black History Month, their encounter seemed to embody the arc of history.
In a scene captured in a video that was viewed tens of millions of times online, a presidential aide announced McLaurin as she entered the Blue Room of the White House. She raised her arms and cane and shimmied as President Barack Obama walked over to greet her, towering over her 4-foot-11 frame.
“It’s an honor. It’s an honor,” McLaurin exclaimed.
Holding her hand as he escorted her to meet the first lady, Obama jokingly admonished the jubilant McLaurin to slow down.
Not heeding his advice, she broke into a dance, which the Obamas quickly joined.
“I thought I would never live to get in the White House,” McLaurin declared, “and I tell you, I am so happy. A Black president. A Black wife. And I’m here to celebrate Black history.”
Virginia Lugnia Campbell was born in Cheraw, S.C., her delivery assisted by a midwife. South Carolina had no official record of her birth, according to her son, but McLaurin said she believed her birth date to have been recorded in a family Bible as March 12, 1909. Government documents later issued to her recorded the year of her birth as 1916 or 1917, her son said.
She told The Washington Post that she was married at 13 and moved with her husband to New Jersey, where he was killed in a barroom fight. She later settled in Washington to be near a sister.
For 24 years, from 1994 until the year she was believed to turn 110, she volunteered 40 hours a week at schools through the United Planning Organization’s Foster Grandparent Program.
Deborah Menkart, a friend who met McLaurin through her volunteer work and assisted her with her needs. said: “She had a whole long life of doing good. She was famous for her one moment with the Obamas but really had a lifetime of dedication to her community.”
After her death, Barack and Michelle Obama tweeted the video of their encounter and the message, “Rest in peace, Virginia. We know you’re up there dancing.”
McLaurin’s son said she was married three times and had two children, including a surviving daughter and a son who predeceased McLaurin. She took Cardoso in when he was 3 and later formally adopted him. In addition to her children, survivors include numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other descendants.