ELIZABETHTOWN — Baldwin Branch Missoinary Baptist Church recently selected its 2017 male and female seniors of the year.

The church congregation elected Maggie Lewis as the Senior Female of the Year and Clyde Butler McKoy is its Senior male of the Year.

Lewis was born in Elizabethtown and is the third oldest of 15 children. While growing up she was very helpful to her parents in assisting and caring for her younger brothers and sisters. She was so valuable; in fact, her father nicknamed her his “Gold Dollar.”

Lewis attended Bladen County Training School. Her hobbies are shopping, traveling and cooking. As a young adult, she moved to the Bronx, New York, where she reared her five children. While there, she joined the LeGree Baptist Church in Manhattan, New York. and worked at Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium. Following her retirement, she moved back to Elizabethtown and joined Baldwin Branch Missionary Baptist Church, where she serves as a senior choir member.

The Senior Female of the Year is the daughter of the late Gaston Bruce Lewis and Martha Graham Lewis, the widow of Benjamin F. Lewis, and the loving mother of Brenda, Angie, Mark, Jeffery and Linda. She is affectionately known as the “Silver Fox” due to her explicit fashions and her superior silver hair styles.

McKoy is the fourth oldest child born to the late Johnnie McKoy Sr. and Mary Liza Demery McKoy.

He was married to his soulmate Beatrice Moore for more than 53 years and, of this union, they had four children: Wanda Thomas, Sharon Wilson, Vanessa Crocker and Cetruss. McKoy takes much pride in his many grandchildren, great-grands and great-great grands. McKoy says that his late wife is the one person who has made the greatest positive impact on his life. Following his marriage, he and his family spent many years living in New York. After returning home to live, Clyde worked primary as a carpenter. He was also employed by the Bladen County Board of Education.

In addition to work, he found time to play as a left-fielder on the community softball team called “Happy People.” Fishing with his buddy, Larry Adams, was his favorite passtime.

McKoy is an ordained deacon of Baldwin Branch Missionary Baptist Church. A man of many talents and Baldwin Branch has and still is benefiting from his God-given gifts.

https://www.bladenjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_MrsSr.jpg

https://www.bladenjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_MrSr.jpg