Salha "Mama" Bobo
Salha Bobo | |
|---|---|
| Born | Salha Levy 1907 |
| Died | 2001 (aged 92–93) Florida, United States |
| Other names | Mama Bobo[1] |
| Occupations |
|
| Children | 7 |
| Relatives | Jonah Bobo (great-grandson) |
Salha "Mama" Bobo (1907–2001) was an American businesswoman, philanthropist, and matriarch of the Bobo family, based in Tampa, Florida, United States.[2]
Biography
Born in 1907[2] in Aleppo, Ottoman Syria, to a Jewish family. She lived there until the age of 14.[3] She emigrated to the United States as a teenager and lived in New York City, Jacksonville, Florida,[citation needed] and Macon, Georgia, where her grandmother found her a husband when she was 16. She married Ralph Bobo,[3] an Egyptian of Jewish heritage,[4] and started in the grocery business with her husband in Georgia in 1922.[2] The couple settled in Tampa in 1947,[3] particularly Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. After they moved to Ybor City, the couple bought the Blue Ribbon Market.[2] In 1949[3] three years later, Ralph died,[2] and Salha continued to run the store with her children,[3] later expanding to open a second store and three mini-marts.[2] The Bobo family bought the property for the Blue Ribbon Supermarket in 1967, and later sold it to Austrian developers after operating it for decades.[5]
In Tampa, she became locally famous as a cookbook author and businessperson.[4] She has been the feature of numerous print and TV news stories, as well as a documentary about her life[citation needed] and an oral history memoir Mashala, The Life and Times of Salha Bobo.[6] Her cooking, blending Syrian and Southern American cuisine, has been covered in publications such as the Tampa Tribune. In 2002, her first grandchild published the cookbook Mezza & More, Syrian Fare With a Southern Flair, including hundreds of her recipes.[3]
Family
Bobo died in 2001. She was noted for remembering the birthdays of all of her children, grandchildren, and her 50 great-grandchildren even in her old age.[2] She had seven children.[3] As of 2005, the Bobo family had 100 relatives in the Tampa Bay area.[3] Her great-grandson is actor Jonah Bobo.[4]
References
- ^ "Salha Bobo has been characterized as a businesswoman, a philanthropist, and a matriarch". www.facebook.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g Norman, Rob; Jo Zerivitz, Marcia (October 21, 2013). Jews of Tampa. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781439644140.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Story on Salha Bobo's cuisine tradition, Tampa Tribune, 20 April 2005.
- ^ a b c "Jews in the News: Jonah Bobo, James Wolk and Francesca Segal". Jewishtampa.com. April 15, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Wexler, Kathryn; Gibson, Linda; Schweitzer, Sarah; Washington, Wayne. "Blaze rips through Ybor City landmark", St. Petersburg Times, 12 August 2000.
- ^ Mashala: The Life and Times of Salha "Mama" Bobo by author Salha Levy Bob, compiled by Alayne Unterberger, 1996
External links
- Wexler, Kathryn; Gibson, Linda; Schweitzer, Sarah; Washington, Wayne. "Blaze rips through Ybor City landmark", St. Petersburg Times, 12 August 2000.
- Story on Salha Bobo's cuisine tradition, Tampa Tribune, 20 April 2005.