20th Anniversary Maryland Centenarians Luncheon

( Photo by Sloane Brown, Special to The Baltimore Sun / May 13, 2012 )

Odessa Dorkins, Maryland Centenarians Committee founder/co-chair (second from right) started the committee 20 years ago, after asking a professor at Morgan State University -- where she was a graduate student -- how many people in Maryland were over the age of 100 and realizing no one had ever really compiled those figures. At the 20th anniversary luncheon, she talks with Gloria Lawlah, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Aging, Dolores G. Kelley, Maryland State Senator, and Sheila Sayles, Social Security Administration district manager. "We're no centenarians yet," said Lawlah, " but, we're trying to get there."