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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IN CELEBRATION OF PASTOR SIDNEY R. CRAWFORD'S 101ST BIRTHDAY
______
HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to extend my
sincerest congratulations and Happy Birthday wishes to an inspirational
leader and true man of God, Pastor Sidney R. Crawford, who celebrated
his 101st birthday on Wednesday, June 6, 2019, with his family and
friends.
Sidney Richard Crawford was born on June 6, 1918, in Bonneau, South
Carolina to the union of the late Mr. William Henry and Mrs. Mary
Elizabeth ``Lizzie'' Hodge Crawford. He graduated from Berkeley County
High School in 1937 and went on to attend college in Spartanburg, South
Carolina.
In 1941, he married the love of his life, Ms. Iva Elizabeth ``Betty''
Harper, in Heath Springs, South Carolina. That same year, he responded
to God's call to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by becoming an
ordained Baptist Minister at Emanuel Baptist Church in Summerville,
South Carolina. He pastored several churches in the Charleston and
Summerville areas until 1947, when he decided that he wanted to serve
not only his community, but his country. That year, he enlisted in the
U.S. Army and honorably served his country for seven years. In 1954, he
was called back into the ministry to preach in Adamsville, Alabama.
Over the years, Pastor Crawford successfully balanced the role of
Pastor at several churches in Alabama and Georgia until 1970, when he
decided to return to college to enhance his studies. His hard work and
dedication paid off in 1972, when he graduated with a degree from
Charleston Southern University. But even with his newfound wealth of
knowledge, he continued pastoring in churches and teaching at schools
in South Carolina.
George Washington Carver once said, ``How far you go in life depends
on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged,
sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong
because someday in your life you will have been all of these.'' Pastor
Crawford has advanced far in life because he never forgot these lessons
and always kept God first.
The race of life isn't given to the swift or to the strong, but to
those who endure until the end. Pastor Crawford has continued to run
the race of life with zeal and dignity and God has blessed him over his
lifetime.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the U.S. House of
Representatives to join my wife, Vivian, and me, along with the almost
730,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District, in honoring
an outstanding citizen and man of God, Pastor Sidney R. Crawford, for a
lifetime of selfless service to God, the church, and to humankind. We
extend our best wishes to him on the occasion of his 101st birthday and
without reservation exclaim: To God be the Glory.
____________________
