Sisterly Love

I’m bouncing back to the 75^th anniversary video with this post as I don’t want to lose sight of the Harrington sisters, Margaret and Eloise, and their place in Hayes Barton Baptist Church’s history.  Having two sisters of my own, I am always intrigued by the relationships between and among sisters.  When Margaret and Eloise appear in the video, the interplay between them and their demeanor with each other speak to the kind of sisterly love that can mark the relationship between sisters.  Ah…so again we return to the “timeless value” of “love.”

Margaret and Eloise Harrington were charter members of Hayes Barton Baptist Church having joined with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. H.G. Harrington, on November 26, 1926.  As they reflect on the 75^th anniversary video, as Margaret Fletcher and Eloise Stephens, they both remember the “frame church” that was initially built, with its potbelly stove and wooden slatted pews.  You had to sit up close to the stove, according to Margaret, to stay warm.  “I loved that place,” recalls Eloise.

Memories of the first pastor, Dr. James B. Turner, are shared as they mention he incorporated baseball terminology in many of his sermons and that he ended every sermon, according to Eloise, with “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” 

“We went to church all the time,” says Margaret.  “Every time the doors were opened, Daddy had us at church.”  “Daddy,” H.G. Harrington, was one of the church’s first deacons and was chosen as the first secretary of the deacons.  “We went to church all day,” recalls Eloise, “It was a warm, great feeling.”

Eloise recalls one of the more famous stories from Hayes Barton Baptist Church’s past when she fondly remembers the bicycle she had with a basket on its front.  The ladies of the church were making and selling quarts of Brunswick stew as a fundraiser to help pay for the organ.  Eloise recalls how she rode through the neighborhood with quart jars of Brunswick stew in her bicycle basket, selling it for 50 cents a quart.  “Fifty cents a quart,” Margaret adds as Eloise is speaking.  “Good…oh that was so good,” Eloise says.

“Those were two beautiful ladies,” G. Wesley Williams recalls. “They lived on Glenwood Avenue in a house real close to the church.”  Elizabeth Turlington, who got to know them in their later years, relates that they said they “always thought we’d die in the shadow of the steeple.” 

“They were fun,” says Elizabeth of her visits with them as part of Hayes Barton Baptist Church’s Home Visitation Ministry.  “They roomed together.  Margaret was the more serious of the two.  Eloise loved to laugh.  And together they were a joy.”

One suspects from watching them on the video and hearing stories from Wesley and Elizabeth that the two sisters were quite a pair.  Word has it that when they were to attend the dedication of Fletcher Theatre in honor of A.J. Fletcher, Margaret’s late husband, they detoured the limousine that had been sent for them to the Char Grill on Hillsborough Street for a burger.

Margaret and Eloise are no longer with us in body, but they are still with us in spirit.  When charter members are talked about, they are with us. When Brunswick stew is talked about, they are with us.  When sisterly love is talked about, they are with us.  They were and still are an important part of the family that is Hayes Barton Baptist church…sisters and brothers, all, in Christ.