Demolished church stirs memories

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September 3, 2012

Demolished church stirs memories

Patti Dozier CNHI The Times Enterprise Mon Sep 03, 2012, 06:24 PM EDT

THOMASVILLE — Three Thomasville residents recalled happy memories of St. Thomas AME Church Monday morning.

Melven Johnson today is chairman of the church’s board of trustees. He began attending the church as a child because it offered a Boy Scout troop.

The church also had softball and baseball teams that appealed to young boys, Johnson explained.

St. Thomas also provided strong mentors: Professor Richard Brown, Bill Morris, Margaret and C.W. McIver and Martin Lawson.

Johnson said that although the mentors are deceased, their influence remains strong on a number of people who grew up in the church.

Vashelle Hayes, a church member, attended Brownie troop sessions at St. Thomas.

Standing near the rubble that used to be St. Thomas, Hayes said her husband, Jerry, has been a church member since childhood. His mother and grandmother also were church members.

She described how church stairs, certain doors and the balcony “squeaked.”

Pointing out that St. Thomas is African Methodist Episcopal, Hayes said, “but there was no one these doors were not open to.”

Ben Hatcher’s first funeral home job was at Hadley’s Funeral Home, which is near the church.

“We had quite a few funerals there,” said Hatcher, today owner of a Thomasville funeral home.

His daughter, Lawanda, married at St. Thomas. “Our church was too small,” Hatcher explained.

Hatcher was a member of Thomasville City Council when the church was restored and rededicated in the late 1990s.

He fondly recalled the ceremony that signified a new structural strength for the historic structure.

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