DANVILLE, Va. – On Thursday morning, the Danville community said its farewells to the woman known as the oldest Virginian.
112-year-old Avicia Thorpe passed away peacefully on Christmas Eve at Stratford Health Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Dedicating her life to the church and working as a public school teacher, Thorpe touched the hearts of hundreds.
Rev. Thurman O. Echols Jr. remembered her strict teachings when he was in her 11th grade English class at John M. Langston High School.
“When you came to her class, you had to mind as the old folks said. You had to mind your p’s and q’s,” Echols Jr. said during his eulogy.
Service and education were ingrained in her as she strived to make a difference, explained Gayle Breakley, the Danville chapter president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
“She is not just a person who lived a long time,” Breakley said. “She’s a person that effected change.”
As green and pink banners surround her at the funeral, Thorpe made history as the oldest member of the AKA Sorority, but that’s not the only title she holds.
She was also the oldest NAACP member in the United States.
Tommy Bennett, the president of the Danville chapter of the NAACP, said her lifetime membership with the organization prevails.
He said he met her when he was 15 years old, but little did he realize it would be a 50-year friendship he would never forget.
Despite witnessing segregation in schools and the battles for equality still being fought, Echols Jr. said she chose to not be bitter.
“She loved people and it was a wonderful experience in just knowing she cared for others,” he said.
And in the words of Thorpe’s own poetry, “Let me be of service, Lord... may this world be a better place because I have lived here.”