When President Obama visited the Richmond area in 2010, one person he made sure to meet was Ashland’s oldest resident, Virginia Shelton.

“That was a highlight of her life. We have pictures of him hugging her,” said a grandson.

And she proudly voted for his re-election in 2012.

That’s one of the memories family and friends are sharing about Mrs. Shelton following her death Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014 — just a few days before she was to celebrate her 109th birthday.

Known as “She She” or “Aunt Sis” to her family and friends, Mrs. Shelton impressed everyone with her vivacity, grace and dignity.

She loved dancing. She rode horses until she was 100 and drove herself until she was 99.

And she still remained active after that. Last year, she even competed for the bridal bouquet with younger women at a relative’s wedding.

President Theodore Roosevelt was leading the country when she was born into a family of five children in Ashland in 1905 when cars, telephones, airplanes and paved streets were in their infancy.

She grew up during the savage era of racial segregation, but lived to see government-sanctioned segregation wiped out by the Civil Rights Movement and the monumental election of the first black president.

She started out working as a seamstress and then went on to nursing school. She was a nurse until retiring around 1970.

Mrs. Shelton held an honored place in Ashland, which even assigned a police officer to keep an eye on the town’s oldest resident.

Three years ago, the town threw a party to celebrate her birthday and present her with the key to the town.

The event was held at the Lebanon Friendship Café, a church-based center for the elderly that Mrs. Shelton helped found three decades ago and where she remained an active member until her death.

She also was active in the Hanover Seniors.

Mrs. Shelton, who outlived her husband of 50 years, Charles Shelton, and three of her four children, was hailed as the town’s mother by her pastor, the Rev. Lawrence Samuel of Ashland’s Providence Baptist Church, where she served as a deaconess and missionary.

“She had a great life and shared it with others,” he said.

Until recently, she mostly looked after herself at her Ashland home.

Ashland Councilwoman Terri Winston-Abri said Mrs. Shelton was always busy.

Often, when she tried to visit she found Mrs. Shelton was away at one program or another. Ms. Winston-Abri said she once called to invite Mrs. Shelton to an Ashland event only to be told, “I’m on my way to New York.”