AAS 12/19/08After a historic vote, Amanda Jones dies at age 110Amanda Roberts Jones, the 110-year-old Bastrop daughter of a slave who lived long enough to vote for the country’s first African-American president, has died, her family confirmed this morning.
Her granddaughter, Brenda Baker, said that Jones had recently been hospitalized, but she was still preparing for a standing-room only birthday party on Sunday afternoon.
She celebrated her birthday on Tuesday, December 16. Baker said Jones went to sleep Thursday morning and didn’t wake up.
"She lived awful long," Baker said. "It was a full life, and her faith in God helped her live a long life."
The middle child of 13, Jones, who was African-American, was part of a family that has lived in Bastrop County for five generations. Her family remained a fixture in Cedar Creek and other parts of the county even when its members had to eat at segregated barbecue dives and walk through the back door while white customers walked through the front, said Amanda Jones’ 68-year-old daughter, Joyce Jones.
Rest in peace Amanda Jones! You lived a very long life and you lived to see political history this presidential election! O8)
This was the woman that was celebrated as possibly the oldest person who voted for Obama in Texas. Here's the prior AAS story on her from October 27th.
Daughter of slave votes for Obama; 109-year-old Bastrop woman casts her vote by mail. Sonia