Hattie McKnight still drives herself to church every Sunday — no small feat for a woman born just a few years after World War I.

At 101, the longtime Greenport resident still lives on her own, recently passed her DMV eye exam and makes the short trip from her Third Street home to Clinton Memorial AME Zion Church, where she lights and extinguishes the candles at every Sunday service.

She claims the secret to her longevity is collard greens.

“I make them for dinner—and then eat them for breakfast, too!” she said with a smile during a sit-down with The Suffolk Times. “No eggs and bacon for me!”

This Saturday, Ms. McKnight will be honored during Greenport’s Juneteenth celebration, which begins at 10 a.m. at her church.

As the eldest elder, she and several other longtime members will offer a blessing before leading the 11 a.m. parade to Mitchell Park. Ms. McKnight will ride in the passenger seat of a convertible as the community celebrates under this year’s theme, “The Walk to Freedom Continues.”

The theme resonates with Ms. McKnight’s own life story — and with the family history she still carries.

Ms. McKnight, widely known as “Miss Hattie,” has called Greenport home since the 1940s. She had eight children, including James McKnight, who served in Vietnam and was buried at Calverton National Cemetery in 2018. She keeps his flag in her house.

Three of her other children have also passed away.

Another son, Roscoe McKnight, also served in Vietnam and now lives in Virginia, as does her youngest son, Tracey Bisbee, who recently turned 60. 

Born Jan. 15, 1924, on a Mississippi sharecropper’s farm, Ms. McKnight remembers the racism of the Deep South.

“The Black man had to do what the white man said,” said Miss Hattie, who rarely gives interviews. “If you want to live in my house, you got to go out there and do some work for me. Yes, sir.”

Though she does not recall the exact year her family left Mississippi, Ms. McKnight remembers that they headed north by “flagging” and “catching rides” with strangers. The family moved from one town to the next, surviving on roasted sweet potatoes and taking whatever work they could find along the way, she said.

“My grandmother operated on, ‘Where’s the work?’” Mr. Bisbee said. “They’d get a ride to a certain point, work a little and then hitch another ride.”

Her niece, Val Shelby, is part of that same Greenport story. Ms. Shelby’s father — Ance, better known as Johnny — followed work north and helped root the family on the East End.

Ms. Shelby remembers hearing her father talk about riding “English Racer” bicycles all the way from Manhattan to Greenport to work in the farm fields.

“Can you imagine?” Ms. Shelby said. “That’s a long way to go!”

After finishing third grade, Ms. McKnight helped take care of her siblings. She later spent much of her life working in farm fields from Laurel to Orient, picking beans, potatoes, strawberries — whatever was in season.

For Ms. McKnight, the move north meant something more than work. It meant the chance to build a life.

“Here, we were no longer working at a white man’s house,” she said. “Here, you got to go work on a white man’s farm and make the money to go and buy that house!”

Her mother was able to buy several houses in Greenport, including land on what is now the recreation center, which she deeded to the church.

“Back then, working on the farm, picking beans and potatoes, they were able to save up and buy houses,” Ms. McKnight said. “Now, they can’t.”

Ms. McKnight secured her own home on Third Street, where she still lives — and where she grows the collard greens she credits with keeping her young.

Ms. McKnight, who only recently started using a cane and still “loves to eat,” is especially proud of her time driving the after-school bus for Head Start.

“It was the big bus, full of kids going to basketball, baseball, what have you,” she said.

She also served as head chef in the nutrition department, cooking for CAST when it was based in Greenport.

Through it all, she remembers Greenport as a place where neighbors looked after one another.

“Everybody in Greenport was friendly regardless of race,” Ms. McKnight said. “There wasn’t none of this, ‘I’m white and you’re black.’ It was, ‘This is your house. My house is next to yours. If you need anything, you can ask me—I will go the store and get what you need, come back and give it to you. That’s the way it was back in those days.”

Ms. Shelby agreed.

“Greenport has always been a melting pot, where people have come together. So I’m glad that people are still open like that.”

And after an hour-long interview, Ms. McKnight stood up and made one final announcement.

“Okay, now let’s go eat!”

The post Greenport’s Hattie McKnight, 101, to be honored at Juneteenth celebration appeared first on The Suffolk Times.

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