Florence Delores Waites, former hospital worker and community activist, dies at 85

Florence Delores Waites, 85, a former hospital worker, knew everyone in her Point Breeze neighborhood, and as she was the longtime block captain, everyone knew her.

Ms. Waites died Monday, Jan. 25, from complications of COVID-19 at her Philadelphia home.

She had eight children, including four stepchildren, but everyone in her community, related or not, called her “Mom.”

She was known to feed neighborhood children anytime they stopped by. And, as those children grew up, they sought her advice, including on how to find a good job.

“Her impact on people was so great,” said her sister Minister Jean Waites-Howard. “I was visiting her one day when a young man she had recommended for a job came by the house. He said, ‘I wanted you to know, Mom, I got that job.’”

Florence Waites was born in Philadelphia in January 1936, to Eva McCallister and James Harvey Waites. Her parents divorced when she was young and her mother married Samuel Ford, whom Ms. Waites called “Daddy.”

Ms. Waites was the oldest in a large, blended family of 11 because Ford had children from a previous marriage. Her biological father also had other children. In all, she had seven sisters and three brothers.

She attended John Bartram High School. Not long after, she wed Charles S. Murphy in 1953. When that marriage ended in divorce, she married Alfred Crenshaw Sr. That marriage also ended in divorce.

For about 10 years, Ms. Waites worked in environmental services at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital before she left work because of a back injury, said her son Charles Murphy.

Ms. Waites had been a block captain for almost 40 years in the 2000 block of Manton Street, worked with a Point Breeze Town Watch program, and also met with the 17th Police District about keeping the neighborhood safe.

“She was a great mom. She was a great mom to the neighborhood. She kept us straight and out of trouble,” her son said. “All the children in the neighborhood called her Mom.”

As captain, she secured permits for block parties and once hosted a block-party wedding for one of her sons.

When she married her second husband, he had four children from a previous marriage. But Charles Murphy said his mother did not distinguish between biological and nonbiological children. She considered them all her own.

“She was a mother to the world. No one was ever excluded,” he said. “Any child who came to her, she embraced them.”

Ms. Waites worshiped at Solid Rock Baptist Church in Point Breeze, where she was a missionary and a Church Mother, a title given to revered elder women in the Baptist church.

She enjoyed playing pinochle with friends, traveling, entertaining, cooking, and baking. She once told friends her phone was always ringing off the hook with people calling her for advice.

In addition to her sister and son, Ms. Waites is survived by sons Allen, Robert, Reginald, and Calvin; a daughter, Gloria; 30 grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; 17 great-great-grandchildren; and four sisters and one brother. Two sons and both former spouses predeceased her.

A viewing will be at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, at Solid Rock Baptist Church, 18th and Federal Streets, with a funeral to follow at 10 a.m. Burial will be at White Chapel Cemetery in Feasterville.