UPDATE: This story has been updated with the public viewing times for Willie Mae Hardy.
Funeral arrangements have been made for Willie Mae Hardy, the 111-year-old woman who garnered national attention earlier this year, the family announced.
Hardy died in her sleep last week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. She made headlines earlier this year for being the oldest living woman in Kirkwood.
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Born March 11, 1908, in Junction City in Talbot County, Hardy was the granddaughter of a slave and lived through 20 presidents — from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump.
Hardy voted for the first black president Barack Obama when she was 100. She also made headlines earlier this year when she met Michelle Obama at a signing for the first lady’s book “Becoming” in May.
In the 1930s, Hardy met and married Frank Hardy. The couple was together until his death in 1979. At the age of 31 and with only a third-grade education, Hardy and her family moved to Atlanta in 1939 looking for what she called a better life.
Hardy, her husband and her only daughter, Cassie Edwards, settled in the area now known as the Old Fourth Ward.
Once here, Hardy worked for prominent Atlanta families as a housekeeper until the 1980s. In 1966, Hardy and her daughter moved to the Kirkwood home they shared until last July when Cassie died just four days shy of her 93rd birthday.
Public viewings will be from noon to 4 p.m. and 8 to 10 p.m. Friday at Donald Trimble Mortuary at 1876 2nd Ave in Decatur, her family said. Another public viewing will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at Butler Street Baptist Church at 315 Ralph McGill Blvd.
The funeral will be held 11 a.m. Saturday at The Covenant Church at 1700 Corey Blvd. in Decatur.
