South Carolina H 3666: Mother Eddie Stringer

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 3666 Text of Previous Version (Jan. 15, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 3666

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A house RESOLUTION

to EXPRESS THE PROFOUND SORROW OF THE MEMBERS OF THE 
SOUTH CAROLINA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES UPON THE PASSING OF Mother Eddie Lee 
Stringer AND TO EXTEND THEIR DEEPEST SYMPATHY TO HER LARGE AND LOVING FAMILY 
AND HER MANY FRIENDS.

Whereas, the South 
Carolina House of Representatives was saddened to learn of the death of Mother 
Eddie Lee Stringer at the age of one hundred five; and

Whereas, born on 
November 9,1918, Eddie Lee was the sixth of eleven children born to the late 
Eddie Stovall and Annie Dawson in the small farming village of Haleburg, 
Alabama. Nine of the eleven children, as well as their parents, have lived to 
be nonagenarians or centenarians; and

Whereas, the Stovalls 
were a prominent Black family in the region, not just because of their numbers 
and longevity, but because they owned their farmland while most Black families 
sharecropped by renting farmland from wealthier whites. Family tradition 
claims that Mother Stringer's grandfather and great-grandfather owned more than 
a thousand acres in Henry County at one time; and

Whereas, today, the 
Stovall family and heirs own over four hundred acres of Henry County, including 
the homestead that lies adjacent to the Mount Zion Baptist Church, founded by 
the family in 1871 and placed on the Alabama Historic Register in 1985; and

Whereas, growing up 
working on the family farm, Mother Stringer cherished the days she could attend 
school. She was educated at the famed Rosenwald School, a boarding school for 
Blacks in Newville, Alabama. From a very young age she was enamored with 
things of the Lord and felt a strong call to ministry and the pulpit, but her 
father would not allow any woman to speak a word in church; and

Whereas, her father's 
sister, a strong proponent of women's rights, would secretly bring Mother 
Stringer to her church, Oak Grove African Methodist Episcopal Church, where 
Mother Stringer was allowed to serve as an exhorter and Scripture reader. The 
Methodist church's teachings about holiness would prove foundational for Mother 
Stringer in both life and ministry; and

Whereas, Mother 
Stringer married Jesse Stringer, a barber, and she had her first opportunity to 
vote, one of the first people from Haleburg to vote, and possibly the first 
woman of color. Later they moved to Dothan, Alabama, where she became a member 
of Adam Street Baptist Church, was licensed as a missionary, and taught Sunday school. 
In Dothan, she was employed as a licensed cosmetologist and a nurse's aide and helped 
to integrate the cafeteria at the Alabama Southeast Hospital where she worked. 
When the family, moved to Freeport, New York, in 1962, she continued to work as 
a nurse's aide; and

Whereas, out of an 
intercessory prayer group, she joined Little Zion Church of God in Christ, a mega 
church in Freeport, New York. Mother Stringer found herself at home in the 
Church of God in Christ (COGIC), and she became licensed as an evangelist and 
was promoted to "mother" status. Columbia became a second home for her during 
the 1970s as three of her children graduated from Benedict, and she often 
preached at Stedfast Christian Center and First Northeast Baptist Church in 
Columbia; and

Whereas, she made her 
way to Tulsa, Oklahoma, through the Charismatic Movement, graduating from 
Victory Bible Institute in her early seventies. She became an ordained pastor 
and minister of the gospel in 1988 at Higher Dimensions Evangelistic Center and 
served some thirty years as assistant pastor at Joy Praise and Worship Center 
alongside her daughter, attorney J. Carolyn Stringer; and

Whereas, she and her late 
husband, Jesse, reared seven fine children who blessed her with seeing the 
continuation of her loving family legacy in her grandchildren, and a host of 
great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and great-great-great-grandchildren, 
a wealthy lineage. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House 
of Representatives:

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, 
express their profound sorrow upon the passing of Mother Eddie Lee Stringer and 
extend their deepest sympathy to her large and loving family and her many 
friends.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this 
resolution be presented to the family of Eddie Lee Stringer.

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This web page was last updated on January 15, 2025 at 03:04 PM