More selected as Citizen of the Year

Thursday, February 14, 2002

Rosella More will be honored Friday at the Citizen of the Year by the Mountain Home Community Black History Committee during the group's 14th annual Black History Banquet, which will be held Friday, Feb. 15, at the Elk's Lodge in Mountain Home.

The event, one of the larger community banquets of the year, annually honors a member of the local black community for their contributions to Mountain Home and Elmore County.

The Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., MD, head of the national effort to make Juneteenth a holiday in all 50 states, will be the featured speaker at the banquet.

The cost to attend the event, sponsored by the Mountain Home Community Black History Committee, is $30 per person. RSVP to Joe McNeal at 587-3227 by 5 p.m. today.

Social hour will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by the dinner at 7:15 p.m. The dinner will consist of baby back ribs, macaroni and cheese, collard greens and cornbread.

More has been a member of the Black History Committee since 1991.

She was born in Greenwood, S.C., and reared in Greenville, S.C., where she attended school. She was the youngest of four children.

She married her late husband, Jimmie More, in 1954, and the couple had two children, Fred More and Priscilla More McCutcheon, both of Mountain Home. She has two grandchildren. After traveling with her husband throughout the United States for several years while he was in the service, the couple settled in Mountain Home in 1970.

She has been a member of Alfred E.David Chapter #8 of the Order of the Eastern Star (PHA) for 19 years and is currently its Worthy Matron.

She has been a volunteer at the nursing home and hospital for a number of years, and is a member of the Christian and Baptist Church.

She has been active in a number of community projects and has been a key member of the Black History Committee for many years.

Also being honored Friday night will be Darlene Watson, who will be presented with the group's Thurgood Marshall Award for "outstanding community service," and Kelly Everitt, who will receive the Martin Luther King Award for his assistance and help to the committee.

Winning local students also will be honored for their contributions to the black history essay and poster contest sponsored by the committee.

As part of the month's celebrations, the city and base Black History Committees will present the Annual Black History Month Gospel Extravaganza on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. at the Abundant Life Christian Fellowship Church (3195 Airbase Road, Mountain Home, Idaho). The theme is "Lift every voice and sing, Oh Lord we praise you in 2002."

For more information call Rev. Dana Brazell at 587-2035. The event is free to the public. A free-will offering will be received.

Refreshments will be served in the fellowship hall after the concert.

The special guest at this year's concert will be Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., founder and director of the "Fellowship of Creative Christian Jazz Musicians" along with community choirs, praise and worship teams.

The banquet's featured speaker, Myers, 46, is not only an advocate for black history, he is also a top jazz performer, adept as both a jazz pianist and on the trumpet. In addition, he is a medical doctor and an ordained minister.

Myers was born in Chicago, Ill., attended high school in Milwaukee and graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, with degrees in Afro-American studies and pre-medicine.

He received his MD from the Louisiana State University Medical Center School of Medicine in New Orleans, and did his residency in family medicine.

He was ordained as a minister after attending the theological seminary at Mississippi Valley State University. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and is licensed to practice in four states.

He has been honored by the national Jaycee organization as one of its outstanding young men, has received honors for community service from Gov. Tommy Thompson, the Harriet Tubman Award from the Magnolia Bar Association, and the president's award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

He also has received national recognition for his efforts to make Juneteenth a holiday in all 50 states. Juneteenth is a celebration of the final end of slavery on June 16, 1865, when Confederate forces in Texas surrendered to Union forces and the last slaves were freed. Idaho last year became just the fifth state in the nation to adopt the holiday.

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