My mother, Janice Jones Hawkins, was the only girl in her immediate family of Leroy and Lillie Jones. And my niece Courtney Hawkins, who played basketball for the USC Upstate Women's basketball team in 2010, was a tomboy who was close to her brothers Ricky Jr. and Jerrell. But my mother, Janice Hawkins, has many close girlfriends from church and work that were like sisters to her. One of her best friends was Annie Thomas. My mother and family have known Annie Thomas for years. And Sister Thomas raised her daughter, Angela Thomas, along with my four big sisters at our Kingdom Hall church. And they have always, along with our family, joined us on extended trips to Charleston, SC, and the Lowcountry through the years.
Five older ladies from our church—Arcel Anderson, Edna Dirton, Mildred Tolen, Daisy Boggins, and Elizabeth McKinney—went to Old Sterling High School in the 1960s with my parents and Uncle and Aunt Randolph and Dot Hawkins. Sister Dirton, Sister McKinney, Daisy Boggins, Arcel Anderson, and Mildred and her husband, Brother Ervin Tolen, have been wonderful friends of our family for years.
And these older ladies, who are now in their 80s, were born in the 1940s, and they are still alive and going strong. And they lovingly raised the children of the Hawkins family growing up in the City of Greenville. And we always had wonderful good times through the years. And all of them except my mother are still walking and now even doing well for their old age.
And three younger ladies who are my sisters age, Mary Choice, Mary Lewis, and Juanita Harris, were raised by my mother even as her own daughters. And they are doing good when we see them at weekly parties for our family and friends at the Sears Shelter community center in our hometown of Greenville, SC.
Although my dear mother, Janice Jones Hawkins, was the only girl in her immediate family, she has had many girlfriends at our church and who she's even worked with through the years. And she's doing good for almost being 81 years of age, coming up on July 13th, 2025.
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Steven Hawkins is a freelance writer from Greenville, SC.