“If only you had told me about this, I would have put on some lipstick,” said Glendorah Surles Lawrence two summers ago, when patrons of the Houghton-Jones Neighborhood Resource Center surprised her with retirement honors two summers ago.
At the same time, the 50 folks who gathered at North 11th and Johnson, with I-675 motorists in the background, figured Glendorah couldn’t really step down as office manager and continue to stay away.
And so it really was no surprise when she returned in January to serve as a neutral moderator for election of officers, with Anganetta Ervin selected as president and Saleem Mannan as vice-president.
After all, it was her own mother, Pauline Lawrence, who had told the outdoor gathering of people, “I’m proud of all that she’s done, and also for all the things she’s still going to do. I know she’s not going to go home and do nothing.”
Glen is a 1975 graduate of Saginaw High School and a product of both Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University, leading to her first career as a Dow Chemical Co. global communications manager and administrator.
She retired in 2014 and had the option to then enjoy more “G-Styles” travel and fine dining. Instead, she filled a Houghton-Jones void to take the reins as office manager.
Founding leader Christina Jones, still active at 88 and for whom the resource center headquarters is named, described Glen as “like a daughter to me” in presenting one of the honorariums. Mayor Brenda Moore, who resides near the resource center, offered a proclamation from the City Council.
One of the final victories during her tenure was the demolition of a long-time major eyesore, the former gas station and repair garage at Sixth and Lapeer. Glendorah transported an elderly adjacent neighbor to the meetings.
Her father, David Lawrence Sr., was a UAW Local 455 (Nodular Iron) leader prior to his death in 1988. David and Pauline were a young couple in Lowndes County, Alabama, when a dispute between himself and a neighboring white family during the early 1950s led to gun threats that forced the couple to flee to Saginaw.
This instilled a civil rights spirit within Glen that led not only to her neighborhood involvement and other forms of local activism, but also taking part in a 20th anniversary March on Washington (1983) and a 50-year commemoration of Bloody Sunday (2015) in Selma, which took her home as a part of Lowndes County.
President Obama was featured in the Selma event, but Glendorah already had converted a room in her home in tribute to his 2008 election and to his subsequent accomplishments.
