Senior Adult Ministry: Senior Spotlight

 It was interesting to look through what some of our church staff call, our church’s - Book of Life - actually it’s the Membership Book of Athens First Presbyterian Church – on one of the first pages you will find the name:

 Marie Montez Scott. 

Marie’s name was recorded as a new member over 80 years ago.  During a recent morning conversation with Marie, that included her brother George & John Kipp she said “I was born into the church, our church has had a tremendous influence on my life.  It is like my second home.”  At the present time, Marie has been a member longer than anyone in our congregation.

Marie thoughtfully prepared remarks about her memories but cautioned – “they are as I remember them, not necessarily as they were.”   She began by telling us that First Presbyterian Church Pastor E. L. Hill, our pastor from 1908 to1949, married her mother and father and following the birth of an older brother & sister their third child - Marie was born in Athens on Feb. 19, 1917.  A treasured picture in Marie’s living room shows the Scott family just 20 years later.  It was taken on the Sunday after her mother’s death.  In the picture Marie is a lovely young woman who then became a second “mother” to her brothers & sisters along with help from their young cook Lucy.  Marie says about those years after her mother’s death: “Lucy & I tried to keep the house going.” After their mother’s death, older siblings Connie & Eugene returned to work and the three younger children, Anna Louise (Nan), Julian & Stella returned to school.  Brother George was just five and started school the following Sept.

An early memory of the Scott home on Mell street offered quite a bonus, because a house two doors away belonged to a former First Presbyterian Church pastor Dr. Walden.  His daughters were very active in our church.  Miss Julie Walden and Mrs. Mae Walden Morton taught Sunday school classes and Miss Carrie Walden was Marie’s kinder garden teacher at Lucy Cobb.  At another home on Wilcox Street lived a next door neighbor Miss Laura Blackshire – beloved aunt to Laura Fortson.  Laura frequently visited in Miss Laura’s home.  Marie shares – “Laura Fortson is one of my oldest friends, along with Grace Winston Stephens, and later I became best friends with Sarah Carlton Pearson Proctor and her family.  Years later Laura Fortson and I were members of the same Presbyterian Women’s Circle.”

When asked about her memories of the church in the 1930’s Marie remembered the opening exercises of the Sunday School. She told us the children and their teachers began in what is now the Children’s Ministry Suite where they would gather and sing hymns on the wooden pews that we still find throughout our church. 

There were constant connections with First Presbyterian Church.  Even walks and drives thru Athens would remind Marie of her former Sunday school teachers: Miss Edna (Mrs. Edna Garland Hulme), and Mrs. Hartford, and Bob Stephens.  She reports “I am interested in the comings and goings of my family which includes my church friends.” It was a blessing when her brother George returned to Athens after retirement and became active in our church.  She says “He can keep me informed about many of my church friends.”  Not surprisingly, she hears from and has visits from many, church members.  She has fond memories of Sunday School, and those that led those classes.  She mentions the kindness of Richard & Fran Lane who “took me to Sunday School and church for many years.”

Marie’s devotion to her family is so much a part of who she is.  She mentioned her brother George and niece Barbara Carlson “who I couldn’t get along without”, her pride in great niece Tanner Scott, her appreciation of her nurse Sonia, and friend Mary.

There are others parts of Marie’s life that included her work at our local Ben Epps Airport.  As record keeper she was there to record the two tornadoes that tore off the tin roof. She was also employed by Wilkins Industries and for many years at UGA in the Dairy Sciences Dept. But her life has always included, and will continue to include, a heartfelt and sincere devotion to First Presbyterian Church and to those of us who consider it our church home.