Dressed in a silver satin gown, seated in the living room in her nephew’s Matteson home, Corrine Porter belts out the first verse of “Amazing Grace” with conviction.
“… Was blind but now I see,” she sings for her guests. Afterward she smiles and takes in the applause.
“I thank the Lord for everything,” says the retired Chicago Public Schools food service worker who turned 101 on Saturday.
She’s led a long rich life, filled with travel, card games, outings to local casinos and music. Mostly, family members say, her life has been filled with friendship.
A longtime member of Liberty Baptist Church on Chicago’s South Side, Porter is the honorary “mother” of the usher board as well as a former member of the choir.
“I love to sing,” she said. “I love music.”
There was a time when she played the piano, but those days are behind her. Now it’s enough to just listen and, when prodded, sing along.
Only this year did Porter begin to lose her memory, relatives say. And only this past month did she have to be moved out of her two-flat in Chicago’s Englewood community to live with and be cared for by family members.
“She’s always been independent,” McDowell Porter Jr. said of his aunt.
But after a visiting doctor noticed water on the floor of Porter’s home in early July, he called authorities, and it became apparent that her days of living alone were over.
A pipe had apparently burst in the building, causing part of the ceiling to collapse, said Porter Jr., a retired insurance agent. The building, he said, has been closed, and his aunt now lives with him and his grandson, Terry McGroom.
Neighbor Taneha Petties, 40, helps with her care, and every now and then can convince her to belt out a few lines to one of her favorite gospel songs.
Porter was born in 1914 in Oxford, Miss. When she was in grammar school, her family, along with many others from the Oxford area, moved north to Chicago’s South Side. Among the other re-locators was the family of Samuel Porter, her childhood friend who would become her husband.
After Corrine Porter graduated from Wendell Phillips High School, she married Samuel. They were together more than 60 years until he died in 1998.
They didn’t have any children but enjoyed a large extensive family.
Porter Jr. said his aunt attended to four of his sisters during the 30 years she worked in the DuSable High School cafeteria.
“She was a very classy lady,” he said. “She always dressed like a professional.”
In her free time, he said, Porter liked to cook and bake cakes.
“She has a serious sweet tooth,” said Toi Stringfellow, a niece who lives in the Beverly community. “She loves cookies, candy, Jello.”
Stringfellow used to take Porter grocery shopping and watch her load up on the goodies.
“We’d take her out to dinner for her birthday, but she’d never admit her age,” Stringfellow said. “If someone asked, she’d just smile.”
Stringfellow said her aunt used to love to play cards and the quarter slots at area casinos. She and Samuel used to rent a motor home and travel across the country, with other relatives and friends.
“Where haven’t they been?” she said, pointing out that the couple visited Las Vegas, Canada and California.
Niece Hazel Porter Davis, who is on the board of Liberty Baptist Church, said her aunt has been an active member of the church for more than 70 years. The church, founded in 1917, claims members in many south suburbs, including South Holland, Country Club Hills and Matteson, Porter Davis said.
The church has been so important to Porter that when authorities visited her to inspect her home, Porter Jr. said, she couldn’t remember the names or phone numbers of any of her relatives, “but she remembered that she is a member of Liberty Baptist Church.”
So they called the church and were put in touch with Porter Davis.
Porter smiles at the retelling of the story. She credits her faith with her ongoing good health. Well, that and the fact that she didn’t smoke or drink alcohol, Stringfellow said.
“I just try to love everybody,” Porter said. “And I love my church.”
@dvickroy
