| Salha Bobo | |
| Birth Date: | 1907 |
| Birth Place: | Aleppo, Ottoman Syria |
| Death Place: | Florida, United States |
| Nationality: | Syrian-American |
| Other Names: | Mama Bobo |
| Occupation: | Grocer, public figure |
| 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.
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, 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.[3]
In Tampa, she became locally famous as a cookbook author and businessperson.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.[4] 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]
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 area.[2] Her great-grandson is actor Jonah Bobo.[5]