Loretta L. Booker, age 91, of Brownsville, PA, answered the call and went home to be with the Lord on Wednesday, September 8, 2021. She was the firstborn of six children to Albert and Esther (Land) Lee. She joined the church at age of 11, and because the community was small, she was very active with the Baptist and Methodist church. She served as secretary of the AME Church, Sunday School, and Christian Endeavor all while actively participating in the Baptist Church BYPU. She sang in the Methodist and Baptist choirs under the direction of her grandmother, Mrs. Lena Land Spence.

After graduation from Brownsville Senior High School, she attended Wilberforce University with a major in Business Administration and a minor in Economics. After graduating from Wilberforce, she took graduate studies at Miami University, Wright State University, and Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT).

Loretta met Charles E. Booker from Kansas City Missouri and they married. From that marriage, they had one daughter, Cynthia.

Her job experiences have been from Secretary, Auditor, Financial Specialist, Budget Analyst; and Public Accountant for Amity Insurance Company. After 34 years of federal employment, Loretta retired from Wright Patterson Air Force Base as a Budget Analyst.

She was a member of Greater Allen AME Church for over 65 years. Loretta served as Church Treasurer; Class leader, President, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Courtesy Club; President of the Lay Organization (8 years), and Financial Secretary of the South Ohio Conference Lay Organization. She was a Trustee for more than 35 years, President of the Culinary Group, and Greater Allens representative in the Vineyard Program, where she served as City Secretary. An active member of the West Dayton community, Loretta served as a YWCA volunteer, a member of the Troop Committee for Buckeye Trails Girl Scouts of America, the Dayton Urban League, NAACP, Southwest Priority Board, Neighborhood Business Assistance Program Committee, and former President of 100-200 Shoop Avenue Block Club. She was a member of the Sinclair Community College Seniors Board, College of Life Long Learning Advisory Board, Wilberforce University Alumni Association, Recipient of the 2016 WU Alumni Association Hall of Fame Award, and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority (71 years January 27, 1950). She actively participated with the Organizing Resources to Improve Our Neighborhoods (ORION) Project and the Citizen Financial Review Group both established by the City Manager and she still had time to go to computer classes at the Dayton Urban League. Her aspiration was to increase the communitys appetite for educational excellence and economic empowerment.

Lorettas passion was collecting recipes, poems, and cooking. She would describe her lifes journey through the words of one of her favorite songs If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, If I can show somebody that they're traveling wrong, Then my living shall not be in vain.

Loretta is preceded in death by her parents, her 5 siblings, her 3 aunts and 3 uncles, and her cousin, Katherine Bagley. She leaves of cherishing her memory, her daughter, Cynthia (Ernest III) Neilson, grandson, Ernest Chip (Ashley) Neilson, IV; a niece, Ella (Walter) Wills, a nephew, Donald Davis, a host of cousins and friends.