Pomerlees earn Person(s) of the Year Award

Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Linda and Dan Pomerlee have been named recipients of the top award to be handed out at Friday's Black History Banquet.

Daniel and Linda Pomerlee have been selected as the "Person of the Year" for the 17th Annual Mountain Home Black History Committee Banquet.

They will be honored during the banquet, which will be held this Friday, Feb. 13, at the Elk's Lodge in Mountain Home.

It is the first time that a couple has been selected for the "Person of the Year" honor. The pair are founders of the Love Abiding Christian Church in Mountain Home.

Tickets for the banquet are $30 per person. For more information call Mildred McNeal at 587-3227.

Dress is  semi-formal. The social hour begins at 6:30 p.m. with dinner at 7:15 p.m.

The event annually recognizes the Mountain Home Black History Committee's Person of the Year, plus other honors for service by members of the community. It is considered one of the major community "dress up" social events of the year.

Linda Pomerlee, who serves as a pastor at the church she and her husband founded, is a native of Blytheville, Ark., the daugher of the late Bishop T.J. Rogers and Mrs. Tallie Ann Rodgers.

She is a graduate of Blytheville High School. She is actively pursuing a business degree.

Her hobbies are "singing, praying, traveling, reading and just plain having fun."

Daniel Pomerlee was born in Coffeeville, Miss., to Mr. and Mrs. Curtis and Rosie Pomerlee.

He is a 1980 graduate of Coffeeville High School. He joined the Air Force in December 1980 and was assigned to Blytheville AFB, Ark., where he met the woman who would become his wife.

He served his country for 22 plus years in the United States Air Force being assigned to Blytheville AFB, Ark.; Comiso Air Station, Italy; Royal Air Force Bentwaters, United Kingdom and Mountain Home AFB.

He earned two Community College of the Air Force Associate Degrees in Information Technology and Logistic/Business Administration.

His hobbies are basketball, playing pool and "just having fan."

In 1993 Daniel and his family were assigned to Mountain Home AFB and in that same year he "rededicated his life to Christ and has not looked back." In 1997, he said, he was was called by God to preach the Gospel and became a pastor under the leadership of the late Bishop T.J. Rogers of Blytheville, Ark., his wife's father.

In making the selection, the Black History Committee noted that "Pastors Daniel and his wife Linda have truly reached out to the community of Mountain Home. They are pastors that care about people and do all they can to improve the quality of life for everyone they come in contact with."

The Pomerlees are the parents of four children; Rennice, Ebony, Darren and Anthony. His extended family includes one son-in-law, Wesley Poindexter and three grandchildren, Jalynn, Davion and Tierra.

John W. Watson, Jr., a retired USAF master sergeant, will be the featured speaker at the banquet.

Watson served in the Seabees, the Navy combat construction battalions, during WWII.

After the war he enlisted in the Air Force Dental Corps, where he managed units at a large dental complex at Toichikawa Air Base in Japan, and Clark Air Base in the Phillipines.

He served as the administrative assistant to the Air Force Preventive Dentistry Officer at the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks AFB in San Antonio, Texas.

He was awarded three Air Force commendation medals for meritorious service as a noncommissioned officer.

He retired as a master sergeant, dental superintendent, at Mountain Home AFB in 1973, and was immediately employed by the Veteran's Administration as a veteran's benefits counselor, a position he served with distinction for 17 years.

Watson graduated from Pearl High School in Nashville, Tenn., where he was born and raised.

He is a graduate of the Air Force Academy, the Navy Dental Technician's School and the Air Force Advanced Dental Technician's School.

Upon retiring from active duty he also attended Boise State University.

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