Madge Cox Parker Teague

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10 September 1996 Memoir by Michael S. Usey Life is both wonderful and difficult.  Most of us have not been running from someone who wanted to kill us, like the writer of Psalm 23, but everyone of us have known trouble or some life-threatening situation.  Psalm 23 is not a rosy picture of God as shepherd, but it is a brave statement that God will be with us in the midst of this trouble.  We might wish the psalm said, "Yea, though I go around the valley of the shadow of death,"  but instead it speaks to our reality of going through it.  The name of God is mentioned only twice in this psalm: YHWH is the first word, "God is my shepherd," and almost the last, "And I will live in the house of God all my days."  And in the center of is the you addressed to God in the confession of verse 4: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because you are with me." Madge Teague knew that life was both wonderful and difficult.  Born in Addison County 84 years ago (she would have been 85 in October), Madge was the oldest of eight children.  Her grandparents gave the land to the church for a cemetery--the very cemetery that she will be buried in this afternoon.  She had a difficult life early on: her father beat her, and too often she was forced to play the role of mother to her sisters and brothers. Madge married young, probably in part to escape her home, moved to Wadesboro, and eventually moved to Greensboro in the mid-1930s.  I near as I can estimate, she started Forest Avenue Baptist Church in 1934--62 years ago.  Forest Avenue became College Park Baptist when the church moved to a new building, and she has been a member of College Park for the entire 50 years that we've been on the corner of Aycock and Walker.  Even when she was too sick to attend worship, she sent her tithe.  Likewise our member never forgot Madge--visiting her faithfully, and helping her on the rare occasions that Madge would let you help. Madge was fiercely independent--no less that four people have told me that when they had stopped by to visit her she was atop a ladder, cleaning the leaves out of her roof gutters--even when she was in her eighties!  She let her oldest grandson clean out the gutters once, but when David came down the ladder facing outward instead of towards the ladder, Madge never let him clean them again, worried that he might fall.  She mowed her own yard for many, many years, and when she finally let Danny, her other grandson do it, she taught him how to strip the yard so it looked like a baseball outfield.  If you knew Madge at all, you knew that she loved to work in the yard.  She grew all manner of flowers and vegetables; she had great pride in her yard, and she loved being outdoors with her hands in the dirt. She gave away all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and canned large quantities of them to give away to her friends and neighbors.  One group she didn't want give any more to were the squirrels and the birds.  One afternoon Atha came to visit Madge, and Atha found her sitting in the backyard, put out with all the food that the animals had been eating from her garden.  She said to Atha, "I don't mind feeding all of God's creation; I just want them to leave me some."  Peggy, her only child, remembers Madge as a wonderful mother who practiced tough love.  When Peggy was young, Madge worked at Mott-Judson, and would come home after the four o'clock end-of-work whistle sounded.  As a child, Peggy was told not to play away from the house in between the time she came home from school and the time her mother came home from work.  Like most children, Peggy didn't always listen, and many times she raced home whenever she heard that four o'clock whistle, hoping to beat Madge home.  One time she was next door watching the Lone Ranger with her best friend, a boy next door.  When Madge returned and couldn't find Peggy, she searched all over the neighborhood, until she found her daughter next door, happily watching TV.  Peggy still remembers the switching she got that day. Madge accepted life with all its ups and downs, and she met all the adversity with a great sense of humor.  She had a wonderful little chuckle after she would tell you something funny.  She was happiest, though, when she met and married Tommy, and for many years, they were happy and healthy together.  When Tommy was sick, Madge stood by him while he was in hospital, and nursing Tom when he returned home.  She was a hard and tireless worker.  For years, Madge work in the estates departments at the courthouse.  She was extremely knowledgeable about wills and the laws that governed them.  She was so respected by the members of the Greensboro bar that a number of lawyers referred their questions and clients to her.  She never said no to anyone who needed her help, and went out of her way to help.  When a co-worker of Atha's died, a mother leaving two teenage daughters without family, it was Madge who handled her case and care. I am most impressed by the memories of her two grandsons, Danny and David.  It was Madge, David said, that taught him to cook and to garden.  Danny remembers that a couple of years ago she taught him out to budget and save.  When she did, he saw that she had complete records of money spent going back to the 1960s.  She told both of the boys to save money, no matter what.  Madge didn't spank David and Danny like she had her own daughter, although David did recall that she had threatened him with a fly swatter once.  Her grandsons remember being dropped off on many Friday evenings and spending all weekend with her, watching Planet of the Apes on TV, working in the yard, and eating delicious meals.  Madge could cook: she made a cornbread with real corn kernel in it that is still famous at the church, and her family remembers huge holiday and Christmas meals, with Ham and Turkey and nine vegetables--all fresh and homemade.  Madge loved Christmas and made sure her family was treated well.  She was generous with them--Peggy remembers a pair of diamond earrings that Madge gave her, and her grandsons recall that of all of their friends, they had the best Christmas gifts.  She was a most thoughtful grandmother.  Perhaps the best gift of all was the gift of education.  Madge took David when he was a child that she would pay for his education if he would go to college.  He did, and she did.  She offered the same deal to Danny, and when he decided that college wasn't for him, she put the same amount of money in a trust fund for him.  What is clear about Madge is that she was loving, caring, and supportive--the emotional leader of her family, she was hardworking and generous.  She loved her family and her church.  Perhaps the best thing that could be said about her is this: Madge was a Christian, a faithful follower of Jesus, and a good one at that.  Because of her, we are all better people.  Because in her, it was easy to see the stamina, generosity, compassion, laughter, of our God.

College Park Baptist Church 1601 Walker Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27403 cpbcgbo@bellsouth.net 336.273.1779