Idella Coulter Davenport turned 103 on March 10.
To celebrate the centenarian-plus Orangeburg resident, Sen. Vernon Stephens, D-Bowman, honored her on behalf of the South Carolina Senate by presenting her with a framed copy of the resolution the body adopted.
“Hard times I had, but I made it,” she said, “and I praise the Lord and I will say to anybody, ‘I’m too happy to be here right now.’”
After Stephens presented Davenport with the resolution at the home of her daughter and son-in-law on March 18. Davenport stood from her wheeled walker to thank him.
“And I’d like to say to all of my little friends – boys and girls – be very obedient to your parents and ones that are old enough to be a parent,” she said.
Davenport credits her parents’ guidance, and her obedience to them as a factor in her long life.
Her daughter Janet Anderson by her side suggested to her mother, “I think the choices you have made have contributed to your longevity.”
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“Well, yeah,” Davenport replied with a cheerful pause, “that could be really it.”
“Longevity,” she said beaming, “that’s a big word.”
A contagious chuckle brought the same from Stephens and Anderson.
Stephens’ resolution highlights Davenport’s childhood in Rowesville, beginning on March 10, 1919.
She is one of 11 children born to Alice Summers Coulter and Joseph Harrison Coulter.
In 1940, Davenport graduated from Madam C.J. Walker School of Beauty Culture in New York City.
Two years later, she married Fred Douglas Johnson and they had a daughter, Janet Johnson Anderson.
In her second marriage, she and husband James Edward Davenport Sr. had a son, James Edward Davenport Jr.
In 1972, Davenport moved back to South Carolina to take care of her mother.
Nine years later, when Davenport was 62, she earned her high school diploma from Bowman High School, in 1981.
From 1978 until 1989, she was the sole proprietor of J&J Beauty Shop in Bowman.
Upon her retirement, she continued to live a healthy lifestyle.
In 2017, she became a participant in the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, often shortened to PACE.
Stephens told of his fond recollections of Davenport from when he was a youth in Bowman.
“She was one of the neighborhood ‘mothers,’” Stephens said, beaming.
Stephens told her it was an honor to be able to present her with such a special birthday greeting on behalf of the S.C. Senate.
Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD
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