India, June 19 -- For the first time since 2016, Opal Lee will remain absent from the Walk for Freedom march this year. The 'Grandmother of Juneteenth' will not be participating in the event due to a recent hospitalization. The 98-year-old has remained a part of the event since it was started in 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas.

In May, it was reported that Lee was admitted to hospital while she was on her way to receive the International Freedom Conductor Award at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Ohio.

Speaking to the Fort Worth Report on June 17, Lee's granddaughter, Dione Sims, said that the retired counselor is now 98 and the family "really wants to keep her in."

Further, Sims told WFAA that while her grandmother's heal...