Christine Burton Gregory She doesnt put things off She puts them over

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Christine Burton Gregory She doesnt put things
off She puts them over

• By Lauren M.,
• Sarah, and Lauren H.

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Biography

• In her 60 years as a member of First Baptist
  Church, Christine Gregory has continuously
  modeled her philosophy on life To know Christ
  is to serve. She came to Danville from her
  native place of residence, South Carolina in 1948
  to serve as First Baptist Churchs full-time
  director of religious education. She resigned the
  position in 1950 but continued to serve in her
  home church and around the world.

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Biography Continued

• After graduating from Greenville High in 1938,
  she went on to continue her education at Winthrop
  University. Here she received her B.S. degree in
  public and religious education (1942). She also
  participated as President of the Baptist Student
  Union.

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Accomplishments
1982 - 1983 President, Baptist General
Association of VA (first woman to serve in that
position since its founding in 1823) 1985 One of
only two women chosen to serve on a
Peace Committee, formed to help smooth
differences within the Southern Baptist
Conference 1985 - 1990 Executive Vice President
of Baptist World Alliance

• 1957 - 1959
• President, FBC Womens Missionary Union
• 1971 -1975
• President, Virginia WMU
• 1975 - 1981
• President, Southern Baptist Convention WMU
• (the largest womens organization in the world)
• 1981
• First Vice President, SBC (only woman ever to
  hold this office)

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Current Status

• Mrs. Christine Gregory is now living in
  Danville, Virginia. She has three sons and is
  still and active member of First Baptist Church
  in Danville, Virginia. Although he husband in now
  only a strong a loving memory, he is still an
  inspiration to his beloved wife.

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Interview with Mrs. Gregory

• Lauren What was your favorite tradition at
  Greenville High?
• Mrs. Gregory Oh honeyyour asking me to go back
  a century
• Lauren It could be like a football game , or
  your principal
• Mrs. Gregory From my memory of Greenville High
  it was the complete openness between student and
  faculty. There was a good relationshipthere was
  no fear factor in it, and because of that it made
  it easier for all students regardlesswell there
  were no blacksbut it was just a good mixture of
  smarts and not smarts. Everybody just got along
  with everybody else. Oh, I loved the football
  games for sure, I just cant say of any
  particular one.

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• Lauren Do you feel GHS influenced you throughout
  your career?
• Mrs. Gregory Oh sure it did, because it gave me
  the basics, educationally, that I needed. You had
  to take certain things but others were taken for
  enjoyment. It gave me a really good basic
  education and when I went onto college I didnt
  have any problems.
• Lauren Do you feel that your Greenville High
  education pushed you into the direction of public
  and religious education?
• Mrs. Gregory No, I think that evolved on a
  gradual basis. In college I was interested in the
  Religious Student Union, and was very active in
  that. Then I think just one step at a time after
  that, I became involved in whatever was open. In
  those days women were not chosen over menI was
  bound by principle, not by activity. And it was
  later, once I was married with children, that I
  became interested in that (religion). Education
  has always been important to meand that came
  from participation.

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• Lauren Why or what keeps you so heavily involved
  in religion?
• Mrs. Gregory Well I believe all principals of
  the Christian faith. I respect all other forms of
  religion, I just choose Christianity, But I think
  there is a common factor in all of them. But like
  all other parts of my life it was a gradual
  process. If you did one thing, and you did it
  well, you moved on to the next thing. It was
  mostly just the chance for serviceIve always
  been interesting in the kinds of things that
  involve people and as I became involved in
  projects, it just led to that general field.
• Lauren What was your reason for moving to
  Virginia from Greenville?
• Mrs. Gregory It was called a marriage! My
  husband came to Dane River, which was a big
  textile industry here in 1946, and then once he
  became established, he was an engineer. We
  married in 48, and just never went anywhere
  else.

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• Lauren After looking through your old yearbook,
  we noticed that you were part of the gardening
  club, could you tell us a little bit about it?
• Mrs. Gregory I dont remember that at all! But
  as I said that was a long time agoit must not
  have been that important.
• Lauren What kept you so involved in the GHS
  community?
• Mrs. Gregory Well I have always been a doer, I
  like being involved in things. My personality
  demanded it, I suppose.

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• Lauren How was Winthrop for you?
• Mrs. Gregory Well it was a good educational
  institution. Of course at that time it was an all
  womens college, and there were very strict rules
  in every direction, but once again it gave me an
  opportunity to exert leadership qualities. My
  father chose Economics as my major and I just
  chose English to go along with it. But basically,
  it just gave me the opportunity to become a
  leader and there was a good relationship between
  faculty and students.

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• Lauren Are there any other hobbies that you have
  outside of your involvement in the community?
• Mrs. Gregory Well back to the Gardening club, I
  still dont remember it but Gardening has always
  been my strongest forte. I like getting out into
  the yard to so a little bit every day. I am an
  avid reader, I am a crossword puzzle addict. I
  have to have a half a dozen book by my side all
  the time.
• Lauren If there were any moment in your life
  that you could relive which would it be and why?
• Mrs. Gregory Good knightthe fact that I had
  been elected to post in my denomination, which is
  Baptist, I was the first women who became
  President of the General Convention in Virginia.
  I was the first women to become an officer in the
  Southern Baptist Convention. But of course it
  happened by a natural progression. It was unusual
  for a women to be elected because it was
  predominately men. When you have the training
  and inspiration it is not a difficult thing.

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• Lauren Did you ever stay in contact with any of
  your classmates over the years?
• Mrs. Gregory Yeah but theyve all died out. Well
  after I came to Virginia, I just lost contact
  with some people. Ive recognized people on
  occasion, in fact after they published that
  directory of the students, I would look back and
  find the names of students whom I had a really
  good relationship with. I was disappointed to
  find that more had died than I realized. I kept
  more in contact with college friends.

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• Lauren Who in your life has had the biggest
  influence on you and why?
• Mrs. Gregory My husband by all meanshe has been
  dead 16 years but, he was one of those people
  that thought, You can do anything a man can do
  except make a child. My husband believed you
  could do anything you wanted as long as you had a
  good support system. He was always supportive of
  whatever I was doing. We had very different
  lifestyles but they merged at a point where we
  supported each other. And then my sons came along
  and followed in his footsteps and are just as
  supportive.

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Works Cited

• We would like to send a special thanks to Mrs.
  Christine Gregory for her time and wonderful
  responses to our questions.
• Davis, Kathy, Amy Cook, Ray Robinson, and Dick
  Inlow. To the Glory of God The Worship, Work and
  Witness. Danville, VA, 2009.