- November 8, 2024
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Naomi Tinnin McLaurin was born on August 6, 1916. She is the youngest of nine children born to Alec and Patience Tinnin in Mebane, North Carolina. Her siblings are now deceased, and most lived a long life but Naomi is the only one to reach 100.
McLaurin graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina with a degree in Home Economics in 1942. She taught Home Economics at a high school in Clinton, North Carolina. While at Shaw, she met the love of her life, Arthur Leroy McLaurin of Stedman, North Carolina. They were married in Washington, DC and eventually settled in Arlington, Virginia. They were blessed with two children; Arthur Leon McLaurin of Palm Coast, and Naomi Yvonne Jukes of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The McLaurins joined the Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, where they served for more than 56 years. Both had been members of the Shaw University Choir, and they brought those talents to Mt. Olive by singing in several choirs over the years.
Naomi McLaurin was a substitute school teacher in the Arlington and Fairfax County school systems in Virginia, and as an accounting clerk.
McLaurin was known as an outstanding cook and would prepare enough Sunday supper to accommodate not just the immediate family, but those Mt. Olive family members who would “conveniently” stop by the house just to say hello during supper.
“Whenever, I returned to Arlington to visit my parents, I’d find that someone else had joined the family,” her son Leon McLaurin said. ‘My parents were always helping others in the community. I was proud when others were able to experience the love that they gave to my sister and to me.”
The McLaurins’ had been married more than 57 years when Arthur McLaurin died in 1998. She moved to Palm Coast with her son and daughter-in- law, Leon and Pat McLaurin in 2004.
The family will be celebrating her 100th birthday at Princeton Village, 100 Magnolia Trace Way from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 6. Along with hundreds of well wishes from family and friends, McLaurin received a birthday greeting from President Barak Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
