Dorothy Levy, Co-founder Of United Cerebral Palsy Of Birmingham, Celebrates 106th Birthday
Dorothy Levy is still on a high after her birthday party last month. I met with her recently at the Greenbriar Assisted Living facility in Birmingham. As I walked into her room, family and friends shared laughs over a Facebook video of Levy dancing. In the video, she rolls her wheelchair back & forth, kicking her legs and bouncing her shoulders. Levy is active; just as her oldest son Harry was as a child.
Source: Janae Pierre, WBHM
Dorothy Levy lives at Greenbriar Assisted Living Memory Care.
“My Harry” she says, “he grew up to be a perfectly wonderful individual. He had cerebral palsy.”
Harry was born in 1938. Back then, doctors in the South didn’t know anything about cerebral palsy. She says doctors would say kids with the disorder were ruined.
“And during that time of raising this baby we didn’t know exactly whether his movements were wrong or not,” she says.
Levy recalls traveling to New York with Harry in the early 40s. While there, they worked with a physician who trained Harry’s doctor in Birmingham.
Levy’s daughter Janice says whatever Harry needed, her parents were there to make it happen.
“There was an organization called United Cerebral Palsy of Birmingham, and my mother and father were very active in getting it started,” Janice says.
Source: Janae Pierre, WBHM
Dorothy Levy and her children, Janice and Robert, in the dining hall at Greenbrier Assisted Living Facility in Birmingham.
The program is now called United Ability. Almost 70 years later, it continues to connect people with disabilities. Levy visits the center when she can.
“But I don’t do very much in the community now. I’m too old and decrepit,” she says.
Though she feels “decrepit,” Levy has enough energy for yet another birthday celebration.
“We should have a birthday party for somebody every month,” she says.
I joined her and the family in the Greenbriar dining area on a recent Friday night and we ate everything, from chips and guacamole to ribs and collard greens. That’s right, this 106 year old can still chow down on ribs.
“If you wanna eat ribs eat [them], they won’t hurt you. They’ll do you some good,” she says.
That’s exactly what we did, we ate ribs. And even though it’s a year out, Levy is already making plans for her 107th birthday.
Immigrants with no criminal convictions represent sharpest growth in ICE detention population
The number of people in ICE detention without criminal convictions nearly doubled in the last month — a significant increase compared to detainees who have been convicted of crimes.
How Trump’s big beautiful bill aims to ‘supercharge’ immigration enforcement
The bill includes a major federal investment for President Trump's mass deportation plans, while also limiting eligibility for some safety net programs based on immigration status.
DNC chair says Republicans sold ‘their constituents out to help billionaires’
NPR's Juana Summers talks with Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, about how Trump's massive tax and policy bill will figure into democratic messaging in the midterms.
U.K. High Court slams MI5 over informant deception and lack of transparency
A ruling by London's High Court cited the domestic intelligence agency's failure to explain why representatives had repeatedly misled U.K. courts about an informant accused of violence against women.
Actor Michael Madsen, known for ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ dead at 67
His representatives confirmed that his death followed a cardiac arrest this morning.
Abrego Garcia says he was severely beaten in Salvadoran prison
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported from the U.S. in March, says he was brutally beaten and subjected to psychological torture while held in one of El Salvador's most notorious prisons.
