Salha "Mama" Bobo

Salha "Mama" Bobo (1907–2001) was a Syrian-American Jewish businesswoman, philanthropist, and matriarch of the Bobo family, based in Tampa, Florida.[1]

Salha Bobo
Born1907
Aleppo, Ottoman Syria
Died2001
Florida
NationalitySyrian-American
Other namesMama Bobo
OccupationGrocer, public figure

Biography

Born in 1907[1] in Aleppo, Ottoman Syria, she lived there until the age of 14.[2] She emigrated to the United States as a teenager and lived in New York City, Jacksonville, Florida, and Macon, Georgia, where her grandmother found her a husband when she was 16. She married Ralph Bobo,[2] an Egyptian of Jewish heritage,[3] and started in the grocery business with her husband in Georgia in 1922.[1] The couple settled in Tampa in 1947,[2] particularly Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. After they moved to Ybor City, the couple bought the Blue Ribbon Market.[1] In 1949[2] three years later, Ralph died,[1] and Salha continued to run the store with her children,[2] later expanding to open a second store and three mini-marts.[1] 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.[4]

In Tampa, she became locally famous as a cookbook author and businessperson.[3] She has been the feature of numerous print and TV news stories, as well as a documentary about her life and an oral history memoir Mashala, The Life and Times of Salha Bobo.[5] 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.[2]

Family

Bobo died in 2001. She practiced Judaism, and was noted for remembering the birthdays of all of her children, grandchildren, and her 50 great-grandchildren even in her old age.[1] She had seven children.[2] As of 2005, the Bobo family had 100 relatives in the Tampa Bay.[2] Her great-grandson is actor Jonah Bobo.[3]

References
  1. Norman, Rob; Jo Zerivitz, Marcia (October 21, 2013). Jews of Tampa. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781439644140.
  2. Story on Salha Bobo's cuisine tradition, Tampa Tribune, 20 April 2005.
  3. "Jews in the News: Jonah Bobo, James Wolk and Francesca Segal". Jewishtampa.com. April 15, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  4. Wexler, Kathryn; Gibson, Linda; Schweitzer, Sarah; Washington, Wayne. "Blaze rips through Ybor City landmark", St. Petersburg Times, 12 August 2000.
  5. Mashala: The Life and Times of Salha "Mama" Bobo by author Salha Levy Bob, compiled by Alayne Unterberger, 1996
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