Daisy Vines remembers the shiny material and the way the banner draped from shoulder to hip. She remembers the hard work it took to earn each badge that graced the banner and how the crown felt on her head. Most of all, the 87-year-old remembers how the lessons she learned as a child in Girls’ Auxiliary prepared her for life.
“Memories are made of this,” she told an audience of more than 180 gathered at Pleasant View Baptist Church, Foley, for the Baldwin Baptist Association’s annual Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) Celebration on April 30.
As Girls in Action (GAs), formerly Girls’ Auxiliary/Sunbeams, enters its 96th year, Susan Bartholomew, GA leader and missions educator for Alabama WMU, launched a search for the oldest-living former GAs in Alabama. Her goal: To gather the women together for the association’s annual WMU banquet and shine a spotlight on a program that continues to play an important role in the lives of girls.
Because of illness and last-minute conflicts, several honorees were unable to attend, including 89-year-old Elizabeth Johnson, whom Bartholomew believes to be the oldest-living GA in the state. Johnson, who will be 90 in October, is a member of Jackson Way Baptist Church, Huntsville, in Madison Baptist Association.
A GA memorabilia display at the banquet included a 1948 issue of World Comrades, the national GA magazine, with a cover photo of a young Betty Cowart Harrison, now 76, of First Baptist Church, Rogersville, in Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association. The cover featured Betty and her sister, Peggy, receiving awards from Kathleen Mallory, national WMU executive secretary from 1912 to 1948.
In addition to Vines, honorees attending the banquet were 81-year-old Clara Crutcher of First Baptist Church, Lillian, and 80-year-old Alice Duffee of Southside Baptist Church, Bay Minette, both in Baldwin Association.
“The GAs surely helped prepare me for life and to be a Sunday School teacher,” Vines told the audience. “I have taught Sunday School for over 50 years and I am so happy God still uses me,” she said, noting that she continues to teach Sunday School at First Baptist Church, Fairhope, where she is a member.
“It has helped me, made me stronger, helped me want to learn more about the Bible,” she said.
Vines said she moved to Fairhope in 1957, but grew up in the north part of Baldwin County where she attended First Baptist Church, Bay Minette.
“I attended Sunbeams, GAs and taught Sunday School there,” she said. “The GAs met at the church and in the leaders’ home. We learned the steps and would receive a banner made out of the most beautiful, shiny material. The banners would go this way,” she said, motioning from her left shoulder to her right hip. “We received our crown, which was treasured. I worked hard to earn each step and crown.”
Vines said today she claims Psalm 71:17–18: “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.”
Crutcher can still name most of her GA friends from 1939. “We just enjoyed each other,” she said. She passed down her love of GAs to her niece, Gloria Young, who is an Acteens leader, and Young’s daughter, Amy, who is a Mission Friends leader.
Duffee remembers being part of the Sunbeams in Pine Grove, including one particular speaker.
“I remember she emphasized that people in China needed somebody to go and tell” the good news about Jesus Christ, Duffee recalled. That message of long ago remains current, as the Baldwin WMU celebration featured a talk by Rosalie Hunt, the daughter of missionary parents to China, who was also a missionary to China and other parts of the world herself for many years and now serves as president of Alabama WMU.
Bartholomew, who is beginning her term as WMU director for Baldwin Association, said sharing the stories of the past is one way of passing down the legacy of faith to the next generation.
Crutcher offered a direct approach.
“Get your girls to the meetings,” she advised today’s parents.
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