Mabel Taylor, a century-plus of good life

WHEN MABEL Rooks Taylor was born, Theodore Roosevelt was president and Wilbur and Orville Wright had just flown that newfangled thing called an airplane seven months before.

She died Jan. 15 at the age of 106, one of the city's oldest residents. She was living at Stapeley in Germantown, but had lived in her Germantown home until six months after her 99th birthday.

Mabel was born on a 200-acre farm owned by her father, David Rooks, in rural Gates County, N.C. He worked as a blacksmith and raised prized horses and dogs. Her mother was Minnie Burke.

Mabel was the oldest of three girls in a family of nine children. Despite the rigid segregation of the South, the Rookses were well-respected. In fact, her grandfather had donated land for a school for black children in the community.

She attended that two-room school herself and went on to graduate from a normal school that trained black teachers in nearby Winton, N.C. She taught for a few years in rural schools there.

Mabel moved to Philadelphia in 1928, married Melvin Taylor and held a number of jobs, including at the Wanamaker department store.

While Mabel was proud of her African-American heritage, she was so light-skinned that she was often mistaken for white.

She liked to tell the story of the time, shortly after she started working at Wanamaker's, when she discovered that the lunch room was segregated. A sign, "Colored Employees," marked the racial dividing line.

Since she was still in training, she didn't want to cause any problems, so she took a seat in the "colored" section.

"One of the supervisors came over and asked my name," she related. "She said, 'You're in the wrong place.' I said, 'Why?' She said, 'See that sign. You don't belong here. You belong over there. Don't eat here anymore!'"

So, from then on, Mabel ate in the whites-only section.

Then there was an incident after she and her husband moved to Germantown in 1954.

"One day I was out front sweeping," she recalled. "I had lived there a couple of years. A woman came by and said, 'There's a question I've been meaning to ask you. How does it feel to be married to a colored man?'"

"I said, 'Just fine. I have a wonderful husband.' "

While trained as a teacher, Mabel didn't try to get a teaching job here, even though the district was starting to accept black teachers.

She worked several jobs as a seamstress, eventually becoming a sewing instructor in the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the program started by President Franklin Roosevelt to put people to work during the Depression.

She started at Wanamaker's as a cashier in 1940, then moved on to the sewing and alterations department, where she remained for more than 12 years.

Mabel and Melvin had no children of their own, but became surrogate parents to their many nieces, nephews and cousins. She enjoyed hosting large family gatherings.

"Her meals were second to none," her family said. "Especially the rolls."

Shortly after their marriage, Mabel and Melvin became members of Jones Memorial Baptist Church, where she served as president of the trustee aides.

In the early 1950s, they joined First African Baptist Church, in South Philadelphia, and she became a founder and member of the church's Nursery Study Group. At the age of 98, she became president of the group.

After her husband's death in 1975, Mabel continued to work as a seamstress and at her church.

In 2004, she moved to Stapeley. Although finding herself in a new environment, Mabel easily and quickly made friends.

"She was a people magnet," her family said. "Her infectious personality and indomitable spirit allowed Mabel to continuously attract legions of new friends over the years and flourish in her new surroundings."

Services: Were Saturday. Burial was in Eden Cemetery, Collingdale.