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All Hail the Queen: Cleopatra McIver celebrates being 104 years young

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Hip hip hooray! Greensboro resident Cleopatra McKay McLeod McIver is celebrating her 104th birthday this week and throughout all these years, McIver has not missed a beat. McIver, a queen in her own right, recently chatted with the Carolina Peacemaker to reminisce about her life and the secret to her incredible longevity.

Born Cleopatra McKay on January 30, 1921, to Grover Cleveland McKay, a WWI veteran and Addie Hurler McKay, a schoolteacher, she is the oldest of seven children (five boys and two girls). Reminiscent of her years as a child in a small community in Harnett County, approximately eight miles from both Dunn and Lillington, N.C., McIver said, “I lived on a farm with my parents, my brothers and my sister. We grew all kinds of vegetables and raised many hogs, cows and chickens. We also had an old mule that would get out of the pen at night. My father would wake me up to go get the mule.”

McIver attended Harnett County Elementary School and Dunn High School. She said, “When I went to school, I remember I would cut across the field to get there and when I got to school, we would all have to line up outside to enter the schoolhouse.

“My mother was a schoolteacher. She graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh. That was a top-notch school,” said McIver.

As a teen, McIver worked in tobacco and cotton fields in Sanford, N.C., with her grandmother, while her parents worked multiple jobs.

“Yes, I would have to get a sack and fill it with cotton. I picked lots of vegetables. Growing up, I didn’t know anything about going to the grocery store to buy food. That was unheard of back then.”

According to McIver’s family, her farming experience taught McIver “to be good at whatever she does, to let others know her worth, and to not settle for less.”

At the age of 20, McIver lost her mother to illness and a year later, her father was tragically shot and killed. She helped care for her young siblings who were left in the care of their maternal grandmother.

In 1941 at the age of 20, McIver married Bennie “June” McCleod, a trained barber, in Sanford, N.C. They remained married until his death in 1951. In 1953, she moved to Greensboro after being recommended for a housekeeping job for a family. She met her second husband in 1956, Naaman McIver, a WWII veteran.

With a constant drive to learn more and improve her skills, McIver attended business school while continuing to work as a domestic housekeeper. She expanded her horizons and became a home health attendant, “providing home healthcare to affluent families in Greensboro and in support of various physicians and their patients.

“I worked for several doctors. They taught me a lot about caring for their patients. I really learned a lot,” she said. McIver developed a reputation as an outstanding healthcare provider and worked until she was 90 years old.

Since 1964, McIver has been a member of Shiloh Baptist Church in Greensboro. She has also been a member of the Greensboro Golden Bell Gardening Club, where she won top awards for her flower arrangements and table settings.

Today, McIver resides in Greensboro with her niece, Deborah McKay. McIver described the secrets to her longevity by saying, “God has really been good to me.”

As for her favorite foods and treats, McIver has been known to enjoy an occasional hot dog from Yum Yum’s Better Ice Cream in Greensboro. Her all-time favorite foods are cabbage, sweet potatoes, and a slice of homemade pound cake.

 “I eat anything that I can catch up to,” she said. Adding, “I love people and having a good time.”  

While McIver does not have children of her own, she has many nieces and nephews up and down the East Coast. Her niece, Laverne Henson, of Lorton Va., described her Aunt Cleo as the free-spirited and humorous matriarch of the family.  

Henson said her aunt, Queen Cleo “takes great pride in what she accomplished in her earlier years as a caregiver, gardener, seamstress, nutritionist and history enthusiast who taught history lessons to whoever would listen. She is a testament to God’s favor on her life for legacy and longevity.”

As for exercise, McIver explained, “I’ve been exercising all my life. We had to walk wherever we wanted to go. Growing up, we owned our house and farm. Someone had to tend to it. That’s what we did. I remember when cars were introduced in 1928. The T Model Ford. You all wouldn’t know anything about that. We used to ride on the fenders. Cars don’t have those anymore.”

McIver also enjoys keeping up with current events and having discussions with her family. She is proud of her life accomplishments and contributes her longevity and good health “to God, people being kind to her, and having fun.” 

“I’m happy that I have seen the growth of Black Colleges. I thought I would go to Shaw, but my mother died, and I needed to help care for my brothers and my sister. I am happy that I have lived to see everything that has come across me.”

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on McIver’s 100th birthday in 2021, her relatives celebrated the occasion by giving her a drive-thru birthday celebration. This time, McIver will have a 104th birthday celebration at Shiloh Baptist Church, where family and well-wishers will gather to honor the queen, who has given so much of herself to her family and community.