Childhood friends Leona Barnes, Elizabeth Hammett, Gladys Butler and Bernice Underwood are all turning 100 years old this summer. It gets even better– 3 of the 4 are living alone and all of them are still very active.

Photo: giphy
Photo: giphy

Born in 1916, these friends have lived through segregation, raised children together, witnessed race riots and listened to hopeful words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo: Washington Post
Photo: Washington Post

Leona Barnes, who worked at the NSA for 30 years, was married to Turner Barnes who was the first black plate printer at the U.S. Bureau of Printing and Engraving. Elizabeth Hammet’s father, a former deacon of Zion Baptist has a chapel named after him.

They thought they’d seen it all at age 92, until Barack Obama became president. “I never thought in my wildest dreams that that would ever happen,” Barnes told the Washington Post.

This is #BlackGirlMagic on another level!

Photo: Kadisha Phillips
Photo: Kadisha Phillips

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