Ada Mae Daniels died peacefully at her home in Oak Bluffs with her family beside her on Sunday, March 16, 2014. She was 80.
Ada was born September 12, 1933, in Indianola, Mississippi, to the late Willie McBride and John Frank Richardson. She was the second oldest of six children and graduated from Indianola Colored High School. In 1952, she joined the Women of the Air Force (WAF) where she worked in areas that required highly classified clearances. While stationed in Sacramento, California, Ada met her husband, Alfred C.W. Daniels who, amongst other things, was a jet pilot in the Air Force. They were married in 1955. During Al’s career in the Air Force they lived on and off numerous air bases throughout the world before making their summer residence in Oak Bluffs their permanent home in 1990.
Ada was always a proud mother, wife and homemaker. Her most absorbing passion was gardening, especially growing orchids, roses, and hydrangeas. She presided over and participated in the remodeling of the many homes the family lived in over the years, and invariably created large, bountiful vegetable gardens. Her husband and daughter will continue to cultivate Ada’s flower garden during the summers to honor her memory. It will not be easily accomplished without her touch.
An avid traveler, Ada met and befriended people from all over the world and was a keen student of world history and culture throughout her life. She was a fierce advocate for civil rights and a force to be reckoned with when confronted with injustice of any kind, having seen it firsthand in the Jim Crow South.
Ada is survived by her husband, Al; her daughters Carmen and Alfie; and her sons David and Jerry. And her beloved dog, Muffet.
She will be remembered as a most loving, caring, and giving woman and will be missed by everyone who knew her.