Page 6 The Skanner September 12, 2018
News
Ella Mae
Gay cont’d from pg 1
lahassee, OK.
“A Time to Love”
In 1939 Ella married
the love of her life, Q.T.
Gay, who preceded her
in death on June 18,
1959 and to this union
12 children were born.
Two sons, LaFarrest and
Shepherd, preceded her
in death. Mom would al-
ways tell her children,
losing her husband was
the most devastating
thing that ever happened
to her, because she had
no idea how she be able
to care for her then-11
children, ranging from
the ages of six weeks to 18
years, but with the help
of God, friends and fam-
ily she battled through
her grief and did what
was necessary to take
care of her children. Ella
made sure without fail
that she and all her chil-
dren where at the church
at least 30 minutes pri-
or to Sunday School,
so much so that she re-
ceived a key to open the
church doors. While at
Pinkard Chapel, Ella was
Sunday School Teacher,
Choir Director (which
consisted of all her chil-
dren and other neighbor-
hood children she could
round up). The choir
became so well known
and popular throughout
the community and sur-
rounding towns she had
to turn down invitations.
She was also a member of
the Farm Women’s Club,
who visited the sick and
shut-in and assisted them
with various needs.
“A Time to Plant”
In 1964, Ella made a trip
to Portland to attend her
oldest son’s wedding. She
fell in love with Portland
and after many obstacles
and delays, on March 17,
1965, she and six children
boarded a train for Port-
land, Oregon, making it
home. Ultimately, all her
children joined her in
Portland except for one.
Immediately upon her
arrival to Portland, she
sought a church home,
which was Allen Temple
C.M.E. Church, under
the pastoral ship of Rev-
erend George E. Carter,
whom she learned was
also from Oklahoma. Ella
didn’t waste any time
getting busy in her new
church home alone with
her children. (House rule
number 1, if you were go-
ing to live in Ella’s house,
church was mandatory,
no matter your size or
age.) Ella became a mem-
ber of the Allen Temple
Steward Board #3, Chil-
dren and Adult Sunday
School Teacher, Choir
member, Missionary So-
ciety — and was always
willing to help in all ar-
eas of the church. Ella
never said “no” when it
came to the church.
Upon moving to Port-
land, Ella took a job as a
Child Care Specialist at
Melinda Bradwell’s Day
Care, where they devel-
oped a mother daugh-
ter bond as Mother and
Daughter as well as
Grandmother to Ella’s
children. That bond re-
mains in the Bradwell/
Gay family to this day.
Ella soon took a job
at Owens Illinois Glass
Plant, Portland, Oregon,
as well as an evening
part-time job. Her num-
ber one priority was to
make sure her children’s
needs were met. She lat-
er became employed with
the Model Cities Demon-
stration Project, where
she was an advocate for
equal employment for all
who needed and wanted
employment. She was
actively involved in the
war on poverty program,
because her desire was
to help people no matter
what their needs were.
She was a member of the
Model Cities Planning
Board, Martin Luther
King Scholarship Fund
and the Youth Care Cen-
ter Board, and several
smaller program under
the Model Cities Pilot
Program.
While working at
Western Electric, Ella
managed to attend night
school at Portland Com-
munity College, where
she earned an AAS de-
gree. Her goal was to
earn a bachelor’s degree,
but as she so eloquently
put it, “The demands of
A career you can
be proud of.
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to strengthening the lives of our members with steady work, wealth
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family life, a full-time
job, and a community to
care for, forced her to
abandon her plans for
the time being. She stated
she had mouths to feed
and my family is my first
responsibility”.
In the middle to late
1970s Ella became em-
ployed by the Oregon
Department of Human
Services as a Case Man-
ager. While there Ella
was still active with the
Model Cities Projects,
she was named Citizen of
the month by the Model
Cities Program because
of her commitment and
dedication to the cause.
In 1971 Ella ran for and
was elected to the Mod-
el Cities Neighborhood
Schools Planning Board
for the Martin Luther
King School.
While
working a beyond ca-
pacity case load as a Case
Manager, Ella, became
involved in the Group
Foster Home Board, the
4-C Parent Advisory
Board, the Kaiser Hospi-
tal Partnership Council,
the Green Fingers Proj-
ect, the Albina Commu-
nity Action Center, The
Albina Childcare Center,
as well as became a Cer-
tified Foster Parent. Ella
was always concerned
about the wellbeing of
not only her children,
but other children as
well. No matter where
she lived in Portland,
her house was always
the gathering place for
the neighborhood, espe-
cially the children and
her named soon changed
from Miss Ella to “Mom-
ma Gay.” Somehow there
was always enough food,
with leftovers to spare.
“A Time to Heal”
After several bouts of
illnesses, Ella retired
from the State of Oregon
in the early 1980s but
she never slowed down.
She was still active in
the church and the com-
munity. She took in nu-
merous foster children,
whom some did not leave
until they became grown
and are still part of the
family today. Once Ella
had beaten both breast
cancer and colon cancer
she bounced back like a
ball and hit the ground
running. She became
a full-time Foster Par-
ent. Her door was open
to all races. Ella did not
believe in color barri-
ers when it came to chil-
dren. Her motto to was
“No child went hungry
or homeless as long as
she was around. There
was always room for one
more.”
“A Time to Gain and a
Time to Build Up”
In 1990 Ella adopted
three of her great-grand-
children ranging from
the ages of birth to one
year. So at the age of 70-
plus she became active in
the community and the
education system all over
again. In 1997 she was a
very vocal mouthpiece in
the Humbolt Elementary
School as the test scores
were low and it appeared
the parents where being
kept in the dark about
plans of action regarding
their children. In a news
article written by the
Portland Public School
Superintendent, it was
said that Miss Ella said
to the Superintendent,
“How do you plan to
make the parents more
accountable?” The Su-
perintendent’s response
was “by getting the par-
ents more involved.” El-
la’s response was, “If I
get anymore involved,
I’ll have to move my bed
up to the school.” Because
Ella wanted to keep her
great-grandchildren fo-
cus, grounded and root-
ed, she and the children
became involved with
various community af-
ter school programs:
SE, Steppers Track Life
Change Christian Pro-
gram, Big Brother, Big
Sister mentoring pro-
gram, Trailblazers Boys
and Girls club, NYSP {Na-
tional Youth Sports Sum-
mer Program, Church
Crusaders for Christ
Step Team, and of course
she made sure they were
active in Sunday School,
Youth Choir, Vacation
Bible School, and Girl
Scout and Boy Scout.
“A Time to Laugh”
Ella loved to sew at one
point she sewed for her
family as well as others,
she loved gardening and
for many years had the
best garden in the neigh-
borhood and it was large
enough to feed the neigh-
borhood. She loved fami-
ly picnics and cook outs,
barbecuing,
cooking,
making sweet potatoes
pies from scratch. Her
pies and barbeque be-
came so famous she took
orders and had a side job
selling barbeque dinners
with sweet potato pie as
desert. She sometimes
had orders for whole
pies. Ella loved enter-
taining: she had the gift
to gab and she loved mak-
ing people happy. She
also enjoyed providing
transportation for the
elderly, the handicapped
and others in need. She
loved transporting them
to doctors’ appoint-
ments, the grocery store,
banking, church, etc. Ella
never demanded com-
pensation for helping
others; most often, when
it was offered she would
turn it down. Her reward
was seeing others hap-
py. Ella was also a past
Matron of Ada Chapter
#6 of the Eastern Star,
Portland, Oregon. She is
also past President of the
Oregon Chapter of the
Oklahoma Club and was
on several neighborhood
watch committees.