Gwendolyn Louise

(Verges) Bedford

Gwendolyn Louise Verges Bedford was born on February 28, 1938, in Riverside, Alabama, to the late Houston Verges and the late Augusta Threatt Verges. She attended school in the St. Clair County school system and later spent many years working in the food service and textile industry. She retired from Avondale Mills in 1990 and fulfilled the rest of her life by sacrificing herself to serve others. She loved gardening, but her most memorable time in life occurred when she was filling in the missing information in a new Bible she had purchased.

The section in the Bible was asking for the date of the first birth and the date of the second birth. She said the date of the first birth was easy, but when she tried to fill in the information for the second birth, she could not write anything on the line.

After attending a Watch Night Service in Lincoln, Alabama, she was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Knowing she had been born again of the water and of the Spirit, she went home, pulled out her new Bible, and filled out the missing information with January 1, 1990, as the date of her second birth.

Mother Bedford, as she was known by many, was preceded in death by her parents, Houston and Augusta Verges; brothers, J.D. Verges, Matthew (Mary) Verges, Alton Verges, William Verges, and Larry Verges; grandson, Mycal Verges and granddaughter, Alicia Yvette Woods.