Mary Louise Green Wright turns 90 years old Feb. 3. She stays close to home these days and usually wheels herself up and down the long corridors of the assisted living facility which has become her home. She is unable to walk the downtown streets of her hometown of Fredericksburg. She loved the town so much that her husband and sister-in-law used to jest that when Louise died, they were going to ride her down Caroline Street one more time! Now they are gone.
The change she regrets the most is not being able to go to church. Her husband died in 1999 and she has not been to her beloved church, Fredericksburg Baptist Church, in all that time. Except for the four-and-one-half years she and her husband spent in Hopewell in 1934, Louise Wright has never lived any other place than Fredericksburg. And during their exile in Hopewell, the couple never changed their church membership because they were hoping to go back.
“I have loved my church all these years,” says Louise Wright. “I really have loved my church!” Today the church comes to her. Jackie Haney and Susie Cruse visit every month and administer the Lord's Supper at the facility where Louise lives.
She grew up just down Amelia Street from the church; and her family walked to church and every place else in the town. Sunday was an all-day-meeting for the Green children. First, they went to Sunday school. Next, the family sat together at the high and holy hour, the 11 o'clock worship service. The Sunbeams met in the afternoon at 2 o'clock. “And we would go back to B.Y.P.U. at 7 o'clock at night and stay for the evening service at 8.”
“They used to give us pins for attending Sunday school,” remembers Louise, “and I had nine pins for nine straight years of perfect attendance. They were pretty pins with crowns. When our home was broken into, the thieves took the whole jewelry box and my pins were in it. I had really appreciated them.”
Growing up Baptist in Louise's youth meant taking part in all the social activities planned by the church. Pauline McGhee was one of the organizers and she would plan an outing “under the Falmouth Bridge” where the young folks would have a picnic. As a child, Louise was among the crowd of children who would troop to the church on Christmas Day in the afternoon for a program and to receive the gift of a bag with an apple, orange, nuts and candy. “We really looked forward to that!” remembers Louise. As an adult, she was ready to participate whenever Alwyn Howell, the creative minister of music in the '40s, would come up to her and say: “Let's get up a group and go somewhere!”
Louise has a memory bank full of names of personalities from the church's past. In her mind, she can re-visit the old church any time of the day and recall who was who, who sat where, who was “up in the choir.” She loved her pastors, starting with Emerson Swift, who baptized her when she was 9 years old. “Lordy, I have seen so many pastors,” says Louise; but in reality, Fredericksburg is a church that has experienced lengthy pastorates so she really has only known a few: Emerson Swift, T. Ryland Sanford, “Dr. Bob” Caverlee, Howard Cates and Larry Haun. Five pastors in 90 years is a good record for a Baptist church!
Well, there was another. Aubrey Williams was pastor when she was born on Feb. 3, 1915; but he was gone within a year, so she really can't count knowing him. Her parents followed an old custom of naming a child after a beloved pastor. In fact, they named their son Aubrey Emerson Green after two of the Fredericksburg pastors.
Louise remembers the Sanford sons and daughters and she played at their house just as if it was her own. “We loved Dr. Sanford. He would take us and love us and hug us just like his own children. It broke our hearts when Dr. Sanford left.”
As an adult, Louise Wright found a place to serve in the elementary department of the Sunday school where she worked for about 45 years. “I really loved those children!”
Louise Wright thinks she knows the secret for a happy, healthy and successful congregation. “You have to be friendly to people. If you go some place and the people are not friendly, you don't want to go back. I think most times, my church has been a friendly church. I knew most everybody at church. If I didn't know them, I would get to know them.”
As for the church today, even from her vantage point as a shut-in, she salutes the church. “They are doing a lot of good work now, such as feeding the homeless. Those young people we have now are doing a good job!” Louise Wright has a window on the world even from the confines of a nursing home. She knows what happened in the past and she keeps a loving watch on the present.
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.