[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 127 (Thursday, July 27, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING MOZELLE REYNOLDS DOBYNS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. H. MORGAN GRIFFITH

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 27, 2017

  Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Speaker, I would like to honor the life of Mozelle 
Reynolds Dobyns, who passed away on June 29, 2017 at the age of 102. 
Mozelle and her late husband Garner were always wonderful people, and 
they were always giving people. Mozelle loved Republican politics, but 
she loved her God more.
  Mozelle was born in a Roanoke County farmhouse in 1915, in a 
farmhouse without electricity or running water. In an early sign of her 
tenacity, Mozelle proved wrong the doctors that had told her parents 
she would not live more than a few days. She attended Andrew Lewis High 
School in Salem and contributed to the war effort in World War II as a 
worker at Radford Arsenal. She then worked at Burlington Hosiery Mill 
until it closed in 1963.
  Mozelle put her faith first. It guided how she lived and how she 
cared for others. She attended Ft. Lewis Christian Church in her early 
years, spent 65 years at Melrose Christian Church, and in 2014 returned 
to Ft. Lewis. While at Melrose, she served as the first female Elder, 
as Elder Emeritus, and as Chairman of the Board. She taught Sunday 
School for decades and worked along with Garner as a counselor for 
Christian Endeavor, a nondenominational youth group. Generations of 
young people benefited from her guidance.
  Mozelle was not expected to live long at birth, but she kept going 
until near the end of her life. Even at 95 years of age, she still 
bought groceries for a neighbor. She drove until she was 96, and mowed 
her own lawn until she was 98.
  Mozelle lived her life well, and many are better for it. I will miss 
this good woman, but as her many ``children'' from her Sunday school 
classes and youth groups will tell you, she always knew her Lord, Jesus 
Christ.

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