A house RESOLUTION

 

to EXPRESS THE PROFOUND SORROW OF THE MEMBERS OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES UPON THE PASSING OF Mother Eddie Lee Stringer AND TO EXTEND THEIR DEEPEST SYMPATHY TO HER LARGE AND LOVING FAMILY AND HER MANY FRIENDS.

 

Whereas, the South Carolina House of Representatives was saddened to learn of the death of Mother Eddie Lee Stringer at the age of one hundred five; and

 

Whereas, born on November 9,1918, Eddie Lee was the sixth of eleven children born to the late Eddie Stovall and Annie Dawson in the small farming village of Haleburg, Alabama. Nine of the eleven children, as well as their parents, have lived to be nonagenarians or centenarians; and

 

Whereas, the Stovalls were a prominent Black family in the region, not just because of their numbers and longevity, but because they owned their farmland while most Black families sharecropped by renting farmland from wealthier whites.  Family tradition claims that Mother Stringer's grandfather and great-grandfather owned more than a thousand acres in Henry County at one time; and

 

Whereas, today, the Stovall family and heirs own over four hundred acres of Henry County, including the homestead that lies adjacent to the Mount Zion Baptist Church, founded by the family in 1871 and placed on the Alabama Historic Register in 1985; and

 

Whereas, growing up working on the family farm, Mother Stringer cherished the days she could attend school. She was educated at the famed Rosenwald School, a boarding school for Blacks in Newville, Alabama.  From a very young age she was enamored with things of the Lord and felt a strong call to ministry and the pulpit, but her father would not allow any woman to speak a word in church; and

 

Whereas, her father's sister, a strong proponent of women's rights, would secretly bring Mother Stringer to her church, Oak Grove African Methodist Episcopal Church, where Mother Stringer was allowed to serve as an exhorter and Scripture reader.  The Methodist church's teachings about holiness would prove foundational for Mother Stringer in both life and ministry; and

 

Whereas, Mother Stringer married Jesse Stringer, a barber, and she had her first opportunity to vote, one of the first people from Haleburg to vote, and possibly the first woman of color. Later they moved to Dothan, Alabama, where she became a member of Adam Street Baptist Church, was licensed as a missionary, and taught Sunday school. In Dothan, she was employed as a licensed cosmetologist and a nurse's aide and helped to integrate the cafeteria at the Alabama Southeast Hospital where she worked. When the family, moved to Freeport, New York, in 1962, she continued to work as a nurse's aide; and

 

Whereas, out of an intercessory prayer group, she joined Little Zion Church of God in Christ, a mega church in Freeport, New York.  Mother Stringer found herself at home in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), and she became licensed as an evangelist and was promoted to "mother" status. Columbia became a second home for her during the 1970s as three of her children graduated from Benedict, and she often preached at Stedfast Christian Center and First Northeast Baptist Church in Columbia; and

 

Whereas, she made her way to Tulsa, Oklahoma, through the Charismatic Movement, graduating from Victory Bible Institute in her early seventies. She became an ordained pastor and minister of the gospel in 1988 at Higher Dimensions Evangelistic Center and served some thirty years as assistant pastor at Joy Praise and Worship Center alongside her daughter, attorney J. Carolyn Stringer; and

 

Whereas, she and her late husband, Jesse, reared seven fine children who blessed her with seeing the continuation of her loving family legacy in her grandchildren, and a host of great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and great-great-great-grandchildren, a wealthy lineage. Now, therefore,

 

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

 

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, express their profound sorrow upon the passing of Mother Eddie Lee Stringer and extend their deepest sympathy to her large and loving family and her many friends.

 

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Eddie Lee Stringer.

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