In June 2021 I received a call from Kenny Howe telling me I had been chosen as an Honoree to be placed on the Wall of Honor at the Civic Center in November of that year. I couldn't imagine why because I'm not a teacher or a builder or doctor or business owner, etc - the kind of things most people on the Wall are honored for. The Chamber of Commerce just told me to submit notes about my life similar to what I would use when preparing a job resume and they would take care of the rest. So the following is what I prepared and submitted.
PERSONAL
I was born in 1943 in Lebanon and graduated from LHS in 1961. My ancestors on both my maternal and paternal sides go back over 5 generations in Laclede and Dallas County, which is also true of my husband’s family.
In 1963 I married my school and church sweetheart Milan Hart. Our daughter, Mila, who was born in 1969, is married to Terry Moore. We have two granddaughters, Mikayla and Lorna Moore. They live in Jefferson City.
My husband and I have owned Hart’s Barber Shop in downtown Lebanon since 1963. My role in the business was bookkeeper, tax accountant, and secretary.
WORK EXPERIENCE
I worked 22 years as a legal secretary in the Lebanon law firm of Low & Honssinger. In 1985 I was recruited by the New York Life insurance company to establish the first New York Life office in Lebanon. I earned several awards including the National Sales Award several times and I qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table in 1988. I resigned from New York Life in 1993. I was a local Avon representative from 2004-2011 and had a small Avon store behind my husband's barber shop.
SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
I was saved and baptized at the age of 10 and joined the Free Will Baptist church. In 1959 I began attending the Taylor Avenue Church of God. Even as a young teenager there (16 years old) I began teaching Sunday School and doing youth work and leading congregational singing. I later attended the Park Manor Church of God which eventually became the West Side Church of God and in later years the Highland Park Church of God.
I initially served the church in music ministry and teaching, but in 1986 I was ordained by Church of God ministries and I started doing evangelistic work and pulpit supply throughout Missouri and other states in 1978.
After my ordination, I served as interim pastor for the Church of God at Gravois Mills and also the Church in Columbia. In 1993 I was called to be the senior pastor at the Church of God in Farmington MO. I returned to Lebanon in 1998, and in 1999 my husband Milan and I founded the Oakland Heritage Church of God in the beautiful Moravian Methodist church building east of Lebanon in Laclede County. I resigned that church at the end of 2011 due to severe health issues but then attended the Garfield Avenue Church of God as long as I was able to get out.
I was the first woman pastor to serve on the state credentials committee of the Church of God in Missouri. In 1988 I was elected President of the Lebanon Ministerial Alliance, the first woman to hold that position. In 2011 I received a 25 year pin for ministry by Missouri Ministries of the Church of God.
For several years I organized an annual city wide National Day of Prayer service for Lebanon and I was the speaker at the National Day of prayer service at the National Cemetery in Springfield a couple of times.
POLITICAL AND CIVIC ACTIVITIES
I was an active member in the pro-family Eagle Forum for years. In 1977 I was named a delegate to the National Women’s Conference convened by President Jimmy Carter in Houston Texas. The conference promoted women’s equality. As a member of Eagle Forum, I was presented an Eagle Award for my activism on behalf of pro-life and pro-family issues by speaking to churches and political groups throughout the state. I am definitely not a liberal feminist in the political sense of the word but I believe strongly in the rights of women to be recognized in all social, civic, religious and political activities.
I have always been opposed to discrimination of any kind but especially racial discrimination. My family and I moved from a farm in Laclede County to Lebanon when I was seven years old and our home was in what was called Old Town at the time, a residential and business area in Lebanon for mostly black citizens, because that’s the way it was in the 50’s in the Midwest. I had many black neighbors as I was growing up and lots of black friends throughout my life, especially in my church. I felt especially close to black ministers, both male and female, because as a female member of the clergy I often felt the sting of discrimination among my colleagues, even though the Church of God has ordained women to the ministry for years.
In 1985 Governor John Ashcroft appointed me to serve as a Human Rights Commissioner for the State of Missouri and I often visited in the homes of the black citizens of Lebanon. I took a strong public stand against the Ku Klux Klan when they marched in Lebanon in 1992 even though I received several threats against my life from KKK members in other areas.
I love Republican politics. I supported Ronald Reagan early on in his 1976 primary race and served as Laclede County Chairman for him in the 1980 and 1984 campaigns. I supported John Ashcroft in his campaigns for Attorney General and Governor and was a county chairman in those races. I served on the steering committee for other candidates including Missouri Legislator Dr. Paul Busiek and Missouri Senator David Doctorian.
I do want to make it clear that during the times I was active in ministry, I did not participate in partisan politics at all. I personally do not believe that politics should be brought into the pulpit with the exception of a moral issue like abortion.
I believe in a strong national defense and was named by Gen. Daniel Graham, U.S. Army retired, and military advisor to President Reagan, to serve on the national speakers’ bureau for the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as Star Wars. I travelled to Washington D.C. and received training from defense officials and then gave lectures to civic and political groups about the proposed defense program.
During the 1970s I worked with a veterans group on a special project seeking the return of POWs and MIAs from the VietNam war, and I organized a special event at the local American Legion welcoming all local Viet Nam vets back home.
I served on the first Advisory Board of the Lebanon newspaper when Bob Smith was publisher, around 1990.
I was a member of the Chamber of Commerce in the 1980s and served as Chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Chamber for eleven years.
NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST, ESSAYIST AND POET.
From 1985 until 1993 I wrote a weekly column of political and social commentary for the Op-Ed page of the Springfield News-Leader. In 2012 I began writing columns for the community news in the Lebanon newspaper and in 2014 I was asked by the editor to write weekly news analysis and opinion columns for the Lebanon newspaper. I continued writing columns for the Lebanon paper until 2019.
I also researched and wrote numerous columns on the history of Laclede County. In 2012 I started the Facebook group “Memories of Laclede County Mo” to celebrate and preserve the history of Laclede County. The group now has about 10,000 members and continues to grow.
From the time I was in elementary school I loved to write. I love the study of words and phrases in the English language and I have written more than 100 poems to date. I have also penned numerous essays and sermons most of which can be found on my blog "Straight From The Hart".
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