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.
How did Condé Nast go from dominance to decline? A new book explains
For decades, Condé Nast publications such as Vogue and Vanity Fair were consequential tastemakers. Writer Michael Grynbaum explores the heyday of these magazines and how they lost their footing.
1960s pop star Connie Francis has died. The singer’s life was touched by tragedies
1960s pop star Connie Francis has died. The first female singer to chart a number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, she sold over 40 million records before the age of 25.
Marc Maron on why it’s time for his ‘WTF’ podcast to end
Marc Maron is proud of his run as host of his podcast, WTF. And because of that, he's bringing it to a close. He wants to avoid it becoming just another show "feeding the garbage bin of content."
Virginia is for … data centers? Residents are increasingly saying no
The world's highest concentration of data centers is in Virginia. Many residents are not happy about that.
Senate approves cuts to NPR, PBS and foreign aid programs
The Senate voted to approve a $9 billion rescission package aimed at clawing back money already allocated for public radio and television.
Gulf Coast braces for flooding as storm builds into possible tropical depression
The weather system moving across the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday was showing a greater chance of becoming a tropical depression as it moves toward the northern Gulf Coast.
