Atlanta humanitarian Mother Hughes dies at 102

ATLANTA — Atlanta humanitarian Mary Hughes, known to many as Mother Hughes, died Thursday, her son told Channel 2 Action News.

Hughes was 102 years old.

She was well-known in the Atlanta community for her generosity. She spent more than 70 years giving away clothes and shoes to local homeless shelters. Each year on her birthday she would give away a box for every year she lived.

Channel 2 Action News was there to help celebrate her 100 birthday in Dec. 2013. That year she divided the 100 boxes between 12 different shelters.

“The more you give, the more God gives you and if you can help somebody, your living will not be in vain,” Hughes said on her birthday that year.

Her son said she died at her home.

"We mourn her loss this evening but we celebrate her life and the way that she modeled what it is to be a neighbor," Pastor Richard Willis, of Friendship Baptist Church said.

Cox Media Group