I was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the eldest of four children. My formative years were spent in a little town in the Mississippi delta - Ruleville. In 1955 my family migrated to St. Louis, Missouri. We left behind us the lives of field hands and a very real sharecropping experience.
I graduated from Charles Sumner High Schoolof St. Louis, Missouri. After graduation I secured a job with Washington University Medical School as a janitor. While in their employ, I was befriended by the Director of the Department of Pathology: Who suggested that I continue my education and that they would loan me the funds to do so if I would. Needless to say I was very excited and eager to pursue some course of learning, However, I had to secure my mother's approval to receive the offered funds, as I was only sixteen years of age.
In 1961 I embarked upon a course of study in a new and exciting field at the time, Electronic Data Processing. After ninety plus weeks of an accelerated approach, I completed the courses offered by a local St. Louis technical school.
September 1963 was a monumental time in my life; this was the month and year in which I was given my first opportunity to demonstrate my skills as an Electronic Data Processor. I embarked upon a career that lasted twenty-four years. I was blessed to travel nationally and become acquainted with some very interesting and powerful people during my career in Computer Science, by God's help I worked my way from the mailroom to the boardroom. After twenty-four years I retired from my career in 1987 as a Director of a major food corporation which was headquartered in Miami, Florida.
In 1972, because of the success in my computer career, 1 was offered an opportunity by a major manufacturer in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Perceiving the opportunity to be a means to leave St. Louis and broaden my horizons, I left the St. Louis area for Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was my intentions to complete the one-year contract I had secured with my employer and then relocate to southern California. Little, did I know, that God had other plans for my life.
I was baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost under the pastorate of District Elder Henry Jones in 1975. In a fewyears my pastor asked me to perform the duties of a deacon. I was most honored to assist him in any way that I could. God then began to deal with my spirit. God revealed to me the ministry and pastorate that I was to take on. In 1987 God’s will for my life came to fruition, my then Diocesan, Bishop Charles Watkins, placed the mantle of shepherdizing on me.
From 1987 until now God has seen fit to have me elevated within the 4th Episcopal District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World wherein the honorable Bishop James E. Tyson is the Diocesan. Also, the Lord has allowed me to see two of my sons become pastors and one daughterbecome the wife of a pastor.
I look forward to the future to see what the Lord has in store for me.
His prisoner,
Suffragan Bishop Elbert C. Haywood,
Apostle/Pastor/Millennial Master