Asheville Residents Celebrate Centennial Birthday
Ms. Lotte Mae Poole was born August 6, 1923.
On August 6, 2023, community members celebrated a week of activities commemorating Ms. Lottie Poole’s 100th birthday.
Lottie Mae Hankerson, the oldest of 10 siblings, was born August 6, 1923 in Allendale, South Carolina to Clinton and Gertie Hankerson. The young family moved to Asheville, NC, in 1928, where her father became the head chef for the George Vanderbilt Hotel (next to Harrah’s Cherokee Center), and her mother worked as a nanny and housekeeper for a judge in Biltmore Forest.
Ms. Lottie Mae attended Mountain Street School, Asheland Avenue Middle School, and the famous segregated Stephens-Lee High School, where she graduated the 11th grade. When Stephens-Lee extended coursework to the 12th grade, Ms. Lottie went back to school for a year and graduated again.
She then moved to New York, where she worked for the Sunshine Company, and back to Asheville, where she married Mr. Joseph Poole II. They soon moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Joseph found work in the automotive industry. Joseph and Ms. Lottie Mae Poole had seven children, two boys and five girls.
Ms. Lottie Mae moved back to Asheville in 1969 and purchased the home where she still resides as she celebrates the centennial of her birth. The Urban News congratulates Ms. Lotte Mae Poole and her entire family on this wonderful milestone!
