Celebrating Sister Dorothy Mae Boggess at 109

Congratulations to Sister Dorothy Mae Boggess, who celebrated her 109th birthday on May 30, 2026. Sister Boggess continues to lead a remarkable life. In June 2023, she received an honorary doctorate degree from her alma mater, Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky, where she was a member of the Class of 1939. The recognition honored a lifetime of exemplary achievement that includes earning a master's degree in social work from Howard University, more than eighty years of membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and writing a book about the travels she shared with her husband.

Sister Boggess was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 30, 1917, to Hattie and Elmore Marks. Her mother died when Dorothy was six years old, and her father never remarried. She was reared by her maternal aunt, Wilma, and uncle, George Sleets. She remembers Louisville as a place where church activities, Baptist Training Union, riverboat rides, picnics, tennis tournaments at Chickasaw Park, big bands at the Armory, and the Harlem Globetrotters helped make life simple but enjoyable.

Education, Service and a Move to Washington

In 1939, during her senior year at Kentucky State University, she was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha through Beta Zeta and graduated with a degree in sociology. She later relocated to Atlanta University to pursue graduate study in sociology and attended the Atlanta University School of Social Work.

While enrolled in Atlanta, she received a telegram directing her to report to the War Department, now the Department of Defense, in Washington, D.C. She arrived in Washington in 1941 and stayed at the Young Women's Christian Association with other women who had also come to the city for work.

Sister Boggess was one of the original five African-American "War Girls" working in a typing pool for the War Department in 1941. She performed clerical duties while working under segregated conditions, including having to walk to the Interior Department for lunch because the cafeteria available to her workplace was segregated.

In 2007, she responded to a Washington Post article about young white women who came to Washington to work during World War II, pointing out that the contributions of African-American women had not been included. The newspaper subsequently gave her an opportunity to write about the African-American women who came to Washington for wartime service and included a photograph of a young Dorothy Boggess.

A Life Shared With George Boggess

In 1941, Dorothy met the love of her life, the late Deacon Emeritus George Boggess. They married on November 11, 1942. Their family includes one son, Kenneth, a daughter-in-law, Barbara, and two adult grandchildren, Kendra and Kenneth George. Together, Dorothy and George witnessed the shaping of a remarkable century.

George Boggess, born in 1912, lived to the age of 104. He was a highly decorated World War II veteran with significant accomplishments of his own. One of the extraordinary distinctions of their life together is that both Dorothy and George lived beyond 100 years of age.

During seventy-four years of marriage, the couple enjoyed extensive travel, visiting all fifty states and forty-five countries around the world. During a 1992 trip to the Holy Land, Sister Boggess participated with other Zion Baptist Church members in a special baptismal ceremony in the River Jordan.

A Career of Service and a Strong Faith

After ten years at the Department of Defense, Sister Boggess began working as a social worker and vocational rehabilitation counselor. She retired in 1976.

She has been a member of Zion Baptist Church for more than forty-five years and continues to attend most Sunday mornings. Her church involvement has included the Wednesday Noonday Bible Class as well as past participation in the Charles B. Walker Culture Club, Flower Club, and Health Ministry.

Witness to History

Sister Boggess has memories of events, places, and people that span generations. By age ninety-one, she thought she had seen it all. Then something happened that she never imagined she would witness: a Black man became President of the United States.

On Sunday, January 15, 2012, she had the opportunity to worship at Zion Baptist Church while she and her husband sat in the church pew behind the President's family. For Sister Boggess, the experience represented the culmination of a lifelong journey for Black people in America, and she wished that relatives from earlier generations could have lived to witness the historic moment.

Travel, Writing and Community

Sister Boggess is especially proud of her 2002 publication, I Wish You Were Here, which reflects on the many places she and her husband visited over the years. She continues to enjoy reading and socializing with neighbors, members of the Wednesday Noon Bible Class, members of the Genevieve N. Johnson Senior Center, and members of Zion Baptist Church.

Her favorite hymn is "I Want Jesus To Walk With Me."