Minnie Lynch Owens Celebrates 100th Birthday

Minnie Belle (Mudda) Gilliland Lynch Owens celebrated her 100th birthday on February 7, 2015.
Minnie Belle (Mudda) Gilliland Lynch Owens celebrated her 100th birthday on February 7, 2015.
By Johnnie Grant

Minnie Belle (Mudda) Gilliland Lynch Owens, born February 7, 1915, celebrated her 100th birthday recently, surrounded by a host of family, friends, and well-wishers. Minnie is the daughter of Sylvester and Raechel Jones Gilliland (deceased) of Henderson County, North Carolina.

‘Mudda,’ as she is affectionally known, was married to William (Bill) Lynch, and Ceola (Catfish) Owens (both deceased), and is the mother of Marie Hill, Mary (Mae) Coleman (deceased), Sue Madden, and Calvin (Brother) Lynch.

Mudda still finds time to partake of her hobbies, which are cooking, sewing, gardening, and, of course, spending time with all of her devoted family members. She is the grandmother of 14 grandchildren, 47 great-grandchildren, 73 great-great grandchildren, and 16 great-great-great grandchildren.

The Urban News along with citizens of Henderson and Buncombe Counties wish Ms. Minnie Gilliland Lynch Owens a meaningful and well-deserved ‘100th’ Happy Birthday!

One Hundred Years Ago

President: Woodrow Wilson

Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall.

January 12 – The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.

The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.

January 25 – Alexander Graham Bell in New York calls Thomas Watson in San Francisco, CA.

February 7 – First wireless message sent from a moving train to a station received.

February 8 – The controversial film, The Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith, premiered in Los Angeles, CA.

March 27 – Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallon) is arrested and returned to quarantine on North Brother Island, NY after spending five years evading health authorities and causing further outbreaks of typhoid.

May 6 – Babe Ruth’s Red Sox pitching debut and first home run; loses to Yanks 4-3.

Other Notable African American Birthdays of 1915

January 2 – John Hope Franklin, historian (1915-2009)

April 4 – Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield, African American blues musician (1915-1983)

April 7 – Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan, African-American jazz blues singer (1915-1959)