A Woman With Strong Work Ethics -Our WINGS Lady of the Month for March 2015(Cledith Rogers)

Cledith Davidson Rogers was born March 30, 1925 to Bertha Davis Davidson and Pearl Davidson. She was born and raised in Clay County. She attended Oneida Baptist Institute for 11 years. She was well acquainted with OBI's founder James Anderson Burns. She is the oldest of 6 children and the mother of 6 children. Her siblings are Phil, Carmon, Charles, Martha and Flora. She was married to Charles Rogers for 41 years until his death in 1988.

As with many young couples Cledith and Chas moved to Hamilton, Ohio in 1947 seeking better job opportunities. Cledith held 2 jobs, one was packing parachutes and the other at a Spiegel catalogue store. Chas worked at Armco Steel.



They moved back to Clay County in 1957. Cledith worked in Food Service until her retirement in 1991. She began her food service career at Oneida Mountain Hospital where she worked alongside doctors who pioneered the field of medicine in Clay County: Dr. Calab Chu, Dr. Priscilla Chu, Dr. W.E. Becknell, Dr. James Becknell and Dr. Ira Wheeler. She worked at Oneida for 18 years.

When the decision was made to build a new hospital in Manchester, she worked tirelessly to help raise funds. She served as Food Service Director at Manchester Memorial Hospital for many years. She tells stories of going to work in snows so deep that the bumper of the car served as a snowplow. Apparently back in those days everyone put chains on their tires and no one was stranded in bad weather. When the nursing home was built, Cledith left Memorial Hospital to become Food Service Director at Laurel Creek Health Care Center where she worked until her retirement until she retired for health reasons in 1991.

Cledith is mother to 6 children: Nina, Jim, Frances (Sis), Will, Rick and Chuck. She is grandmother to 9 boys, her grandsons are responsible for her name "Mam". She currently has 10 great-grandchildren with one on the way and 3 great-great grandchildren.

Cledith has lived through 15 U.S. Presidents starting with Calvin Coolidge, the Great Depression and 6 major wars including World War II. For several years all four of her sons were in the military, Jim, Rick and Chuck in the Navy and Will in the Army. Her son Jim served two tours in Vietnam. She has been serving the Lord for 55 years. Her strong work ethic carries over into her everyday life. She strongly believes in working in the church and supporting it.

Cledith will celebrate her ninetieth birthday on March 30, 2015. She loves attending church and being involved in all church related activities. She is honorary grandmother to a host of friends of her grandsons. She is affectionately known far and wide as "Mam".

A Big Thank you to Beverly Rogers for all the pics and info above.

Cledith is clearly a woman who believes in rolling up her sleeves and getting the job done.

We appreciate all you do Cledith. God Bless You and Yours!

From all of us at the COGWC