By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY — Juanita B. Moore has lived her 100 years by a simple philosophy: “Do unto others as I would have them do unto me.”
She marked her centennial on Thursday, March 11, 2021.
She was born on March 11, 1921, and is the oldest African-American woman in Ocean City, according to the Rev. Greg Johnson.
“Treat other people as you want to be treated. Regardless of race or creed, they’re all God’s children,” she said Friday as she sat in her home on Mercer Place, where she has lived for more than 60 years. Moore was taught that philosophy as a child and has lived by it ever since.
She was born in Virginia to Geraldine and Charles Brown, but raised by her grandparents, George and Sarah Brown.
She attended church school and public school, graduating from Ingleside Seminary in Burkeville, Va. The school was built in 1892 to educate African-American girls and was recognized as a training institute.
After high school, Moore left for the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania to work at a Christian summer camp. From there, she worked in Princeton and Trenton before finding her way to Ocean City.
“I came here in 1955 and met Jesse Moore,” she said. “We married in 1960 and I joined Shiloh Baptist Church. I have been here ever since then in this same house on this same street.”
Her husband, who was a custodian at First National Bank in Ocean City, passed away in 1981. Moore said she worked privately for families in Ocean City. “The best of them,” she noted.
Asked if she has seen a lot of changes since moving into her house in 1960, she laughed quietly. “Dear God,” she said. During the short interview, construction could be heard as workers banged away on new huge homes right across the street on Mercer Place.
Moore said her knees were giving her some trouble, but she didn’t plan on getting them replaced because she didn’t want to go in and out of hospitals. “Everybody I know has to go backwards and forwards in the hospital,” she said, “so I’m going to keep what God gave me.”
“But my head,” she added, “He has blessed me with that. I truly don’t believe He brought me this far to leave me now.”
Although her knees may make getting around a little difficult, her intellectual acuity is not in doubt. However, she didn’t want a big fuss over her 100th birthday.
Moore kept the interview short, saying, “That’s all I want. I don’t want any big write-up. That’s enough.”
She just wanted others to know her philosophy of life and that faith “is the only thing that will take you through.”
“Always put your trust in God,” Moore said.
