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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E345]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING MRS. VERNICE BLACK-AVANT
______
HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON
of mississippi
in the house of representatives
Monday, March 25, 2019
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor
Mrs. Vernice Black-Avant.
Vernice Black-Avant was born November 18, 1949 in Como, Mississippi
to the late Albert and Della Mae Black. She was the fifth born of
thirteen children. She was diagnosed at the age of ten with a childhood
spinal illness. She and her parents and friends spent many months at
LeBonheur Children's Hospital for surgeries, treatments and follow up
visits. She was blessed with praying parents and grandparents: Effie
Dodson Washington and Armetha Walton Black, who both saw to it that she
had a Christian upbringing. She grew up in a rural community just west
of Como, Mississippi. Vernice attended Carruthers and Melrose
Elementary and Como Junior High School. In 1968, she and her family
moved to Longtown, MS. This move came after her family was told to move
over night or be burned in that house because her parents had
encouraged her to attend a predominantly all-white high school during
her senior year in high school.
After moving to Longtown, she met the man of her dreams, Robert Allen
Avant, Sr. in 1968 and married six months later after graduating from
North Panola High School. Following her wedding on July thirteenth they
relocated to Chicago, Illinois for eighteen months. There she enjoyed
cooking with her mother-in-law, Dorothy Jean Bishop-Avant and sitting
in the window on Halsted Street watching the many Cadillac Eldorados go
by as she waited for her husband to come home from work. After a couple
years her aunt became sick, (her mother-in-law's sister) and they moved
back to Longtown. After her Aunt passed, they moved to live with her
mother-in-law in Memphis for a few months. Then in 1972, she began her
career as an elementary school secretary at Crenshaw Elementary School
where she worked for thirty-one years. While there, she served as
lunchroom bookkeeper, doctor, counselor, negotiator, nurse, mediator,
accountant, police/protector and friend.
In 1973, Vernice and Robert were blessed with their first son, Robert
Allen Avant, Jr. Issac Lanier was born five years later. In 1981, they
were blessed with their third son, Albert Hosia Jerriod Avant. A year
later, they moved into their first newly built home. Vernice and Robert
enrolled and attended evening/night classes at Coahoma Community
College at the Crenshaw Interested Community Builders Campus in
Crenshaw, Mississippi and both graduated in 1986 with Honors, merit
Scholarships, and with an Associate Arts Degree. From 1987 to August 4,
2008, Robert Allen Avant, Sr. served as Panola County's District Two
Supervisor with Vernice by his side in full support. After retiring for
a short while, she went to work for a private corporation as secretary
and bookkeeper for ten years. In August of 2008, following Robert's
untimely death due to a very rare lung cancer, Vernice was sworn in as
Supervisor of Panola County's 2nd District.
Currently, Vernice is serving her district and Panola County as vice-
President of North Delta Planning and Development District, secretary
for the Crenshaw P-16 Council for Crenshaw Elementary School and is an
active member of McIvor Creek Missionary Baptist Church where she
serves as President of the Mother Board. She is a Mississippi
Association of Supervisors Education Committee member, former
Mississippi Association of Supervisors Insurance Trust Board member, an
active member of the NAACP and is an active member of Keep America
Beautiful/Panola County. In her quest to be a servant to the people of
Panola County, she made time to care for her brothers-in-law, Micheal
Avant and Willie Avant, both of which lost battles to oral and throat
cancers in 2009 and 2018 respectively. Vernice lost her eldest son,
Robert Jr., to a long battle with diabetes and later colon and lung
cancer in January, 2017. Vernice continues to serve with God as her
focus point. She was recently nominated and awarded the ``Women of
Excellence Award'' by the National Foundation for Women Legislators.
All of Vernice and Robert's children have earned bachelor degrees.
Lanier earned his Juris Doctor degree from Howard University in 2007
and Jerriod is working on his PhD in English at The University of Rhode
Island. Thanks for the opportunity to serve such great people.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Mrs.
Vernice Black-Avant for her dedication in serving her community.
____________________