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A Few Clouds Celebrating a centenarian’s life
Family and hard work sustains Inwood native Minnie Pearl Harris
Minnie Pearl Harris left her native town of New Brocton in Alabama in 1931 at the age of 21 for a better life and with the goal of providing a real home for her parents, Mary and Earlie. Settling in Inwood she accomplished her dream.
Harris, 107, was surrounded by family members other extended family members on Sept. 2 at the 150-resident Woodmere Rehabilitation & Health Care Center in Woodmere, where she has lived for the past eight years. She is the oldest resident ever at the center.
Longevity appears to be strong in her family, as several relatives lived past 80 and Harris’ mother, Mary Harris lived to 99 and, according to family members Minnie has an aunt who is 104. Minnie’s daughter-in-law, Minnie Flournoy is 86.
Minnie Harris’s grandson, James Flournoy, shared her secret to a long life as she relaxed in her chair. “She said, ‘because the Lord hadn’t called her yet,’” James said.
The beloved matriarch worked in the cotton fields of Coffee County as a youngster and then as a housekeeper, caring mainly for the Isaacs family of Woodmere, for many years. “Hard work drove her all her life,” said granddaughter Marcella Flournoy-Wright as the family gathered around a table at the rehab center that Sunday morning.
In Harris’s younger days, she was an active church member of the First Baptist Church in Far Rockaway. She was president of the choir, a member of the Missionary Society, the Sunday School, the Women’s Worker League and the Lookout Club. Harris founded the Penny Drive for the church’s educational center in 1981.
A member of the Women’s Industrial League, the organization was established in 1931 to help young women like Harris who had come from the South. Many of the women were domestic employees. The Far Rockaway-based League offered them counseling, a place to sleep, camaraderie and a place to find compassion. Harris was a senior honoree at the group’s annual dinner in 2009.
According to Flournoy-Wright, Harris lived in two houses — one on Alvin Place and another off Bayview Avenue. “I remember that family was always there, and she was always happy to see her children,” Flournoy-Wright said.
In all, Harris had one son, Louis Flournoy; five grandchildren, two boys and three girls; nine great grandchildren and eight great-great grandchildren. She also has several nieces and grand nieces. “She calls all of us her children,” Flournoy-Wright said.
Great grandchild James Flournoy Jr., 13, said that he appreciates his great grandmother’s life and all that she has seen. “To have someone that has experienced life before you did and seen life before technology is amazing,” he said, as he lifted his head from his cell phone. “You can learn about life before all the technology and find out if their life was a good one with or without the technology.”
