[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 53 (Friday, April 4, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E508-E509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TRIBUTE TO 100TH BIRTHDAY OF MRS. BESSIE (DAVIS) WYNN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CORRINE BROWN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 3, 2008

   Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay 
tribute and to celebrate the 100th birthday of Mrs. Bessie (Davis) 
Wynn, a poet, born April 5, 1908 in Carr, Florida.
   Mrs. Wynn is the daughter and second child of James Stephen Davis II 
and Annie Elizabeth Ware Davis. As a child she went to

[[Page E509]]

school at St. Paul AME Church in Blountstown, Florida since there were 
no other school systems available to Black children there. She first 
started doing poetry as a child when she noticed that the other 
children were not doing well with their Easter speech. She prayed to 
God to give her the power to help them, so she memorized all their 
speeches so that if they forgot a word she would be able to tell them. 
This was the beginning of a calling that has expanded for most her 
life. Her first poem she recited was ``I'm Methodist bred and Methodist 
born, and when I die I'll be Methodist gone.'' As she learned poems she 
would mix other things in them to give them more flare. She moved to 
Pensacola when she was a teen to work and help out at home, but had to 
return to help take care of her siblings when her mother died.
   In 1925 she married Reverend Samuel Wynn and had four children, one 
son, Samuel Jr. (deceased), and three daughters, Mary Catherine, Annie 
Laura, and Jimmie Ola. She lived in different places because her 
husband was a minister and settled down in Blountstown where she has 
lived in the same house for more than 70 years. In her younger days she 
made and sold jewelry as well as working in the lunch room at Mayhaw 
School. She was a den mother for FHA and made the basketball uniforms 
for the first girl's team at Mayhaw. She was elected as queen of St. 
Paul AME Church and won the talent competition in the Golden Girls 
contest held in Blountstown.
   She worked for almost 40 years for the Hollinger family where she 
was forced to retire after out-living her employers. She was in her 80s 
at the time of her retirement. She also took in laundry and was a 
seamstress as well.
   Mrs. Wynn is best known for her poetry and recitations, which she 
has performed along the eastern seaboard, including New York, and in 
Bermuda. She is now a great-great grandmother and still continues to 
delight audiences with her recitations and her quick wit and 
entertaining personality. I am privileged to honor the life of this 
centenarian and life long Floridian. Happy Birthday Mrs. Wynn and best 
wishes.

                          ____________________