Local

105-year-old who won eviction battle dies

ATLANTA — An elderly Atlanta woman who gained the community's affection as she faced eviction has died.

Channel 2's Ryan Young first met Vinia Hall in 2011 when a bank foreclosed on the northwest Atlanta home she lived in with her daughter. Viewers expressed their outrage after hearing the story, and sheriff's deputies and the moving company hired to clean out the home refused to move the women.  

Within days, the mortgage companies involved quickly backed away. Since then, her daughter said she hasn't thought about life without her. Her mother died Thursday night in bed at the age of 105.

"Yesterday, at 6, her head was toward the door, and I knew she had gone to be with the Lord," Kathelyn Cornelius said.

She said her mother lived well, "a happy, happy life."

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed's office offered words of condolences to the family Friday afternoon.

Cornelius said their family's experience has strengthened her faith.

"However you think of people  …  people are always kind at the end," Cornelius said.