Hazel Mallory died Saturday, June 24, from cancer. Her funeral was on Wednesday, June 28, at Hatcher Memorial Baptist Church in Richmond.
For 31 years Hazel Mallory sat at the front door of Virginia Baptist life. As the administrative assistant to the executive director — three different executive directors across the decades — she was privy to all important decisions within the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and the General Association. She was the consummate private secretary for an executive — capable, calm, consistent and close-lipped. If everything in her mind could have been reduced to paper, it would have filled volumes.
Indeed her office was full of the volumes of the minutes of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board as she maintained the official records. With almost instant recall, she could find information either within her computer-like mind or from the records.
She made the preparations for the board meetings. She was liaison to the important committee on boards and committees, maintaining the little black book wherein were the names of all those who served on the boards of Virginia Baptist entities. She was the chief contact between individual board members and the executive director. She helped a busy chief exec with all those detailed plans needed to be effective. And she did it all with an ease that belied the hectic demands made upon her.
She had to have been the most successful graduate of the Bluefield Business College, one of those schools which used to dot the educational landscape and which provided an alternative for those who did not go to college. She learned the basics which opened a door into the world of work in the early '60s: shorthand, typing, office machines. Far in the distance was an unheard of contraption called a word processor which transformed office work. When it came, Hazel was ready to master it.
Hazel White left her little home community of Elgood, near Princeton, in Mercer County, West Virginia, on the bus, along with some other “working girls.” They were headed for the big city of Richmond where she had promise of a job which really did not exist. She laughed telling the story of how her mother almost had apoplexy when she left on a bus for an unknown world.
She did find employment at the Equitable Life Insurance Company in downtown Richmond. She met C.C. Mallory and the couple was wed on their birthdays, July 24, 1964, at Hatcher Memorial Baptist Church. (It also was the silver anniversary for her parents.) They had found a new life together and it was centered on a Baptist church. Hazel kept the job at the insurance company until their son, Rick, was born in 1968. She stayed at home until their daughter, Melissa, became school age in 1975.
Tucked into her personnel file at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board is a hasty note: “March 13, 1975. Mrs. Mallory called today and the answer was ‘yes', she wanted to work for the Board.” She began service with Virginia Baptists on March 17 as a receptionist and office secretary for the office of the executive secretary.
She came under the mentoring of Page Taylor, whose service with Virginia Baptists dated to 1948. Page Taylor was the secretary for the executive secretaries. She taught the young Hazel Mallory and transferred a mammoth amount of insider knowledge. For several years they worked together, Hazel in the front office and Page in the back office. When Page Taylor left in September 1980, she knew that she was leaving the office in good hands.
Through the long years, Hazel Mallory sat quietly on the front row during board meetings, ready and able to assist the executive if needed and prepared to follow-up after the meeting closed. At the annual meeting of the General Association, she was there at the front and, when able, her husband, “C.C.,” was there beside her.
She was quiet and unobtrusive. She knew the constitution and bylaws as well as any parliamentarian and she could whisper the right word to the right person that saved many a meeting. She knew the complexities of the budget. She knew the structure and duties of the many committees. She knew the people. She knew the Baptist landscape.
She maintained a pleasant and positive demeanor which projected confidence and cordiality for the organization. She sat at the front door of Baptist life and made certain that all who entered were well received.
Fred Anderson may be contacted at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.