Last month a large group of friends assembled to honor Edna Frances Dawkins at the dedication of a faculty office which bears her name at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. In a sense, it was a family meeting. There were some blood relations of Miss Dawkins who were present but most of those assembled were kinspersons in the spirit and from long associations with the honoree, especially through their mutual involvement in Baptist life.
Some of the people present at the dedication called her “Aunt Efee,” although she is not really their aunt. Some just called her “Efee,” using a nickname which stretches back to her young womanhood days at Meredith College. For the very proper, she was “Miss Dawkins.” Everyone present thought that she was their own best friend!
Indeed, Faye Pearson, a former missionary, commented that Edna Frances Dawkins “has believed in so many of us and that's why so many of us believe we are Efee's best friend.” In actuality, Faye observed that Miss Dawkins “has a thousand ‘best friends.' ”
Many of those “best friends” began their relationships with her in the years when she was responsible for recruiting medical personnel for the Southern Baptist Convention's Foreign (now International) Mission Board or, even earlier, when she was assistant secretary for missionary personnel. Throughout her service with the board, from 1947-82, she guided thousands of missionary candidates and befriended missionaries and their families.
Faye Pearson remembers: “In 1958 I signed the commitment card at Foreign Missions Week at Glorieta and met Miss Dawkins; and she saw something in many of us that we did not see in ourselves. Edna Frances did not take her candidates through the process and then forget us. She was never too busy to listen to my joys, frustrations, victories.” She continues: “Efee not only talked on missions, engaged men and women to follow to the far corners of the earth but she also lived missions. She loved her missionaries! Miss Dawkins, in my opinion, hung the moon!”
Bill Marshall also worked alongside Miss Dawkins at the FMB in his days as vice president over the office of human resources. He declares that “it was not a myth that she kept up with more missionaries than anyone, although Miss Alma Hunt runs a close second!” Marshall adds that she also insisted that the missionaries who resigned or retired needed to be remembered. Her mantra became: “We must not forget the missionaries.”
Elmer West, another former FMB administrator and yet another of the honoree's thousand “best friends,” dates his friendship back to 1949. He declares that Baptists don't have a Mother Theresa but we do have a Sister Efee. He describes her as possessing “a computer mind linked to a compassionate heart with an uncanny ability to identify with the hopes and hurts of individual people.” He also recognizes that even in retirement, she never stopped. “She led trips overseas not just as a tourist but with missions on her heart. She has been in continuous demand as a missions speaker.”
In his remarks at the dedication ceremony, Elmer West turned attention upon Efee's “busy desk,” a remark which brought knowing smiles by everyone who has ever visited her office or home. He shared a story about one “MK” (missionary kid) who wanted to see his “Aunt Efee's” office and who was overawed and exclaimed: “Auntie, are you moving?” West also insists that after she retired, many staffers came by just to catch their first glimpse of the empty whistle-clean desk. Mary Lee Bullock, her former secretary, confesses that she tried to clean her boss' desk but it soon would be piled high with more stacks of papers.
Edna Frances Dawkins does accumulate friends and papers! She has placed much of her materials at the Virginia Baptist Historical Society where they will prove valuable for present and future researchers.
Even at age 87, Efee Dawkins remains involved in the current Baptist scene. She was among those who first saw the need for establishing the new Baptist entity which became known as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Her time, interests and counsel have been helpful in the building of the CBF. She was an early member of the CBF's Coordinating Council which put the new seminary in place and she was one of the first members of BTSR's Development Council. Efee Dawkins affirms BTSR as “sorta like Heaven” and particularly compliments Tom Graves, the president, for “mingling with the students” and for teaching in such a way that “Christ really becomes even more real to me.”
Elmer West describes Edna Frances Dawkins as “the unsinkable Efee” and marvels at the time when she waded across a river in the Philippines which was full of crocodiles! Bill Wallace calls her “a free and faithful Baptist.” Phyllis Rodgerson Pleasants, professor of church history at BTSR who occupies the office which bears the name of Edna Frances Dawkins, recalls the several times in which Miss Dawkins was on the scene to offer assistance and guidance and admits: “Efee always got there before us to welcome us and encourage us and graciously send us on our way.”
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He can be reached at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.