BIOGRAPHY

Lois Work was born in North Carolina, USA, on 19 December 1906, to parents Harrison David Phifer (1889–1945) and Emma Beatty (1889–1966). She had seven siblings: Effie Jane Adams (1900–1953), Harry Hampton Phifer (1906–1962), Bertha Eugene McCombs (1910–1984), Lucille Johnson (1912–1942), Helen Beatrice Gallmon (1915–1958), Jay C. Phifer (1917–1986), and Herman Kenneth Phifer (1920–1967). She grew up with her siblings on their family’s farm in Mooresville.

On 28 April 1934, at the age of 27, she married Marvin Sylvester Work (1905–1989). The couple had three sons. She worked as a domestic employee for the same Mooresville family for 60 years. She was a member of Watkins Chapel AME Zion Church.

Work passed away at Lake Norman Regional Medical Center in Mooresville, North Carolina, on 5 February 2017, at the age of 110 years, 48 days.

RECOGNITION

Her age was verified by Eli Logan and Jimmy Lindberg, and validated by LongeviQuest on 31 March 2025.

ATTRIBUTION

* Mamie Lois Phifer Work – Find A Grave

* “Reflecting at age 106: ‘I’ve tried to do all the good I can’” – Mooresville Tribune, 19 December 2012

* “Work, Mamie Lois Phifer” – Mooresville Tribune, 8 February 2017

GALLERY