Five Scores and Eleven Months: Biography of Elizabeth Middleton

By Odell Flagg-Allen

I am grateful just to be associated with Elizabeth. She was an inspiration to anyone who came in contact with her. She was a woman with great leadership ability. She not only sought a place of importance but also made a place. Her contributions to the religious sector, education, and the community are limitless. She is one who showed by example what we should do to enhance Gods Kingdom.

The commitment of herself and her talents to Gods program and the spirit of humility with which she performed her varied tasks added to her qualifications as a leader.

With the list of interests she had and the many accomplishments added to her credit, it would be utterly useless to use this time to relate the many avenues through which she worked. Rudyard Kipling says it best when he said She can dream and not make dreams her master. She can think and not make thoughts her aim. She can meet with triumph and disaster and treat both imposters about the same. There was something on the inside of Elizabeth that said hold on. She was a God-sent woman.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479726615

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Copyright © 2012 by ODELL FLAGG-ALLEN.

Library of Congress Control Number:         2012918496

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Indexed by Hyacinth Ann D. Antonio

Reviewed by Ryan Cortes

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Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Acknowledgment

First Eighteen Years

Courtship And Marriage

Woman Of Love

Dual Role

No Electricity

Food For All

Church Worker

Community Liaison

Only Elizabeth

Saved People

Wisdom Speaks

Three Sure Things

Emergency Phone Numbers

Favorite Pastime Readings Of Elizabeth

Priorities

I Know

Shopping Spree

A Great Read

This Life Is A Gift

Remember Your Abcs

What Do You Think?

Footprints In The Sand

If Is A Two-Letter Word

If

Directions Home

You Must Not Quit

My Sisters In The Lord

God Still Sits On The Throne

Good Morning

Speeches Delivered By Elizabeth

Occasion

We Have No Failure In Christ

A Mother’s Love For Her Children

Caring And Sharing

Let Brotherly Love Continue

Thy Way, Oh Lord, Not Mine

God Needs Laborers In His Vineyard

Turn Back To God While We Still Have Time

These Troubled Times

Love: A Special Gift

Relying On Divine Help

Christian Concern And Compassion

The Role Of The Missionary Society As It Relates To Progress

Envision The Future Exceptionally, 1998

Envision The Future Exceptionally, 1999

Our Commitment To God

Bible Quizzes Administered By Elizabeth

Precious Memories

DEDICATION

To my loving sister Berdia Mae Flagg-Mace.

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PREFACE

Surely there is no greater inspiration than the awareness of God’s active role in our daily lives. It is wonderful to know that He is with us each second to share our happiness, our sorrows, our burdens, our troubles, and our victories. How reassuring it is to know that no matter what promises tomorrow bring, we do not face them alone.

This book presents the guidance and life of an unpretentious woman of God who practiced what she preached. It shows how she made a place of importance through her contributions to religious, civic, and educational programs.

Her commitment and her talents of God’s program and the spirit of humility proved her work as a leader. Crowned with wisdom, I equated her to Solomon. She could dream and not make dreams her master; she could think and not make thoughts her aim; she could meet with triumph and disaster and yet treat them both the same.

It is the author’s purpose, however, to deal with perspectives as she saw them year after year. The author can merely express the hope of her judgment as to the fitting proportion that was observed between past and present ideas observed to be reasonably sound. The author has two regrets, namely: (1) Many Bible quizzes I prepared for this Godly lady was lost on a crashed computer, and (2) the speeches written by Elizabeth herself (and there were many) could not be found.

If, as is so often said, women who write need a room of their own, then it is equally true that the books that women write can take on a specific life of their own. No matter how much reading, no matter how much interviewing you have done, the fact of publication makes out stories that throw more light on the life you had thought was already reasonably examined. Then, too, so much of the work of women who write about women involves listening to stories because many of the sources have gone unrecorded.

Gathered here are inspiring reading and messages of faith and hope, of wisdom and strength, of comfort and love, unforgettable words to reflect on, to learn from, and to live by. May you find in this book a lasting treasury of spiritual joy.

INTRODUCTION

Time spent in the word of God offers divine revelations. It makes things happen the way that pleases the Almighty God instead of trying to please ourselves. God’s goodness and love exist through His word. The character in this book, throughout her one hundred years and eleven months, had three goals: her family, her church, and her community, along with all the trimmings that went with them. God’s love led her to the truth that one needs to open his mind and spirit to become one with all the good things He has done.

Most of us will not live to get five scores and eleven. So we need to do what we can while we can for the Lord now. Certainly, it helps tremendously if we start at an early age. I realize we love to hug that bed on Sunday mornings. We should let it go and see how God will change your life for the better.

Family life is a requirement by God. He told us to replenish the earth. Once we do that, we get to know what to do with these children and for these children. We must grow them up the way God wants them to be so that they will know about love, hope, and faith. Love is the greatest of them all. Love conquers all. Learn to love yourself first. Then you can love everyone else just as Christ loves us. I do believe you will have peace and joy while reading this book. I have faith that these messages will give you deeper insight in the love of Jesus Christ by reading seriously and completely.

We often work so hard trying to get things we want that we miss the fact that it is our inner world that stands between us and true happiness. When we devote ourselves to healing our inner world, loving and honoring ourselves, and using that love as the standard by which we interact with others, all the riches of this life will fall in place. The character in this book stayed in the word of God. She knew the race was not got given to the young or to the old, to the swift or to the strong, but to those that endureth until the end.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

My deepest gratitude goes to Elizabeth herself and her daughter Bertha Mae, even though neither of them are no longer with us, for the countless hours of conversations we had whereby Elizabeth shared her life story at will, as her daughter added to the scenery.

My deepest thanks to my family for their support and encouragement to me while writing this biography. My sisters and brother were very inspirational to make my dream come true. I am deeply grateful and thankful for my niece Bettie Flagg for the countless hours she spent in typing this manuscript.

To Hannah O’Connor and Jackie Hunt, I am most grateful. Without their help, the book would not have had all the photographs I needed. Bettie and my former student Belinda Chamber-Okafars, I say thanks so very much for retyping my speeches.

Also, I am very fortunate to have my nieces Patty Stewart and Tena Mace, who provided editorial comments, and for Tena’s typing. Thank you also to Quinton Harris, who designed the cover and scanned all the pictures for this book. I thank my friends for sustaining me during the writing of this biography. My pastor, Reverend Phillip Burks, has always given encouraging words to inspire me no matter what. Indeed, I am grateful.

Finally, to those whose name I fail to mention, I thank you too. I am very appreciative for whatever role you played. Thanks to the Belmont Missionary Baptist Church family because we cannot talk about this lady without mentioning the church where she was rooted. Certainly, we were proud of her.

FIRST EIGHTEEN YEARS

God promised three score and ten to each of us, but Elizabeth went further. What was it that gave Elizabeth longevity? She used to say that obedience and respect for all people have always been her top priority. The Bible promised it; she believed it.

For those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it to themselves, thereby keeping hope alive in the lives of others, knowing that all good things are worth sharing.

To some readers, Elizabeth Middleton’s life is a twist of irony—the story of a true Christian who dreamt of becoming rich and famous in working and speaking for the Lord and was then destroyed by her dream; she realized her gifts early, which were burned out very late. This vision of Elizabeth was too simple to encompass the complicated, divided woman she actually was, and it does little justice to her best speaking; yet it touches on the reasons why she fascinated those who heard her.

Elizabeth was born August 15, 1906, to proud parents Reverend Curtis and Easter Lee Davenport. She was the oldest of seven children—three sisters and three brothers. She attended the Clover Valley Missionary Baptist Church at an early age, where she sang in the choir. Being one from a Christian family, she was not ashamed to let people know she confessed Christ a long time ago. Anytime one talked with her, she gave that person a lesson about God Almighty.

Elizabeth spent her childhood in Vicksburg, a small town on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Warren County. At that time, the town was described as a place where everyone was poor but didn’t know it; and everyone was comfortable and did know it. She had a vivid sense of detail in everything she did. Her character embarked upon a rich background. Everyone in her world was united by a common core of shared beliefs and attitudes. Each person had his own position in the social scheme.

Elizabeth’s Mother Died

Elizabeth’s mother died when Elizabeth was only twelve. Their father tried to farm, keeping the children in school, and be a housewife at the same time, which he found was not working out for him. He confronted Elizabeth, who was very mature and knowledgeable for her age. He told her that he could not go on with all the work he was trying to do. She told her father she would drop out of school and take care of her siblings and the house. Of course, he did not agree with the idea because she was such a bright student, and he did not want to hinder her education. She convinced him that she could do it and that would be the best thing to do. So her father agreed to let her stay home after he tried again to see if he could do more himself while letting Elizabeth remain in school a little longer.

School Attended

She attended the McIntyre School in Warren County, Vicksburg, Mississippi. Elizabeth was among the oldest students who were at McIntyre School at that time. As she recalled the setting of her first year there, she had an opportunity to come in contact with three hundred or four hundred students. Nevertheless, there was no type of social gathering as in schools today. Every hour was occupied in studying. All students had just enough actual contact with the outside world to teach them the need of an education. Many of the students were poor as Elizabeth was, and besides having to wrestle with their books, they had to struggle with poverty, which prevented their having the necessities of life. Many of them had one aged parent, who was dependent upon them to help provide for the family in some way. The great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession over everything else for Elizabeth was to prepare herself as a mother for her sisters and brothers at home. She seemed to think not of herself.

Job after School

After school, she had to chop wood, iron clothes for the next school day for the seven of them, make sure enough water was in the house before dark, and help her siblings with their homework before she could do her own. Their father was still preparing the meals. After that, she helped her sisters get their bath, and her brother Johnny helped the boys. Now, everyone is ready for bed, except Elizabeth. Prayers must be said, thanking God for his blessing that day.