102-Year-Old Woman Who Has Survived 2 Pandemics Votes For The First Time

A 102-year-old North Carolina woman recently voted for the first time in her life. Gertrude Stackhouse was joined by many of her family, including some of her children, grandson, and great-grandson.

"We're standing on grounds where my mother labored," said Clinton Stackhouse. "We're family and all her siblings which was about 14 people in that household."

Gertrude, a resident of Fayetteville, has faced two pandemics in her lifetime. Aside from the current COVID-19 pandemic, she also lived through the Spanish Flu in 1918. After casting her ballot on Friday in Stoney Point, she reflected on what it meant to her to be able to vote at this point in her life.

"Wonderful," she said. "Wonderful. Thankful to be alive to do this in the right mind."

Gertrude, who is blind, has faced multiple obstacles throughout her life. ABC 11 reports that she remembered when Black voters in the South were disenfranchised, forced to take literacy tests and pay poll taxes so they could vote. When the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, the legislation marked a momentous shift for the country in allowing its citizens to vote."

"I hope that helps inspire and encourage other people to not let anything keep them from voting," said her grandson Chris Stackhouse.

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