Salha "Mama" Bobo

Salha "Mama" Bobo, was a Syrian-American Jewish businesswoman, philanthropist, and matriarch of the Bobo family, based in Tampa, Florida.

Born in the first decade of the 20th century in Aleppo, Syria, she emigrated to the United Stated while still a teenager and lived in New York City, Jacksonville, Florida, and Macon, Georgia, until eventually settling in Tampa in 1947, with her husband, the Egyptian-born Ralph Bobo.

She was the head of the Blue Ribbon, an Ybor City landmark grocery store.

Having died in 2001, she has been the feature of numerous print and TV news stories, as well as a documentary about her life, a cookbook entitled "Mezza & More, Syrian Flair With a Southern Fare", and an oral history memoir "Mashala, The Life and Times of Salha Bobo".

She had an especially sharp mind, even in her last years. She knew every one of her children's, grandchildren's, great-grandchilden's, and 2 great-great-granchildren's birthdays by memory. She dispensed business and general life counsel even in her nineties.

Her descendants now live in the Tampa-Clearwater area, in addition to Miami, Atlanta, New York City, as well as in Mexico City.

External links

*St. Petersburg Times story on Blue Ribbon Grocery Store fire, "August 12, 2000".: [http://www.sptimes.com/News/081200/TampaBay/Blaze_rips_through_Yb.shtml]
*Tampa Tribune story on Salha Bobo's cuisine tradition, "April 20, 2005".: [https://www.marketstreetmortgage.com/CommunityAction/RalphBobo.asp]