By Fred Guarino

The Lowndes Signal

In memory of the late Elmore Bolling, a black entrepreneur and philanthropist from Lowndesboro, the Elmore Bolling Foundation held its first Legacy Luncheon awards dinner at the White Hall Municipal Complex on Saturday.

Awards were presented in education, entrepreneurship and citizenship respectively by Constance Belser Quinn, luncheon chairman, and Board President Josephine Bolling McCall to Harvey Means, director of Student Services for the Lowndes County Board of Education; Kelvin J. Lawrence, mayor of Hayneville and owner of the Hayneville Subway franchise which was recently destroyed by fire; and the Rev. Franklin Nettles, pastor of Mt. Zion Christian Church in White Hall.

According to the Foundation, Means volunteers as a sports announcer, Little League referee for the Boys and Girls Club and provides counseling in many community settings.

Means said he asked himself why he should receive the award. He said there were others who paved the way for him and gave him a chance.  However, he said, “I’m humbled, and I will forever be grateful.”

Lawrence is a board member of Keepers of the Brotherhood, a male mentoring non-profit organization.

“It is just an honor to stand up here and accept this award,” Lawrence said. “And I appreciate Ms. Bolling and the board for thinking of me to honor me in this way.”

He said his father has the opportunity contribute the legacy of Elmore Bolling by donating the land for the maker in his honor.

Nettles is founder of the Breaking the Chain Outreach Ministry and Transformers male mentoring group. He helped get a Children at Play sign for ‘White Hall’s William Cosby Road, helps with the back to school rally, after school programs, computer labs and annual community cleanup.

Nettles said, “It’s absolutely elating to see a person honor you and see that your light has illuminated in places that someone notices and says I appreciate what your doing.”

According to a Dec. 7, 1947 newspaper account, Bolling was shot six times in the front and once in the back and left lying in a ditch.

According to the Foundation, a man who never learned to read and write, Bolling was a trailblazer in diversified farming who became a farmer, livestock owner, trucker and transporter.  He had a general store and service station on U.S. 80, which provided space for social events.

Lexanna Stewart, Edward J. Lusane and Lucinda Carr remembered him for his generosity to others.

Lusane said he recalled his mother saying that Elmore Bolling “helped everybody” and he called Bolling an “entrepreneur who was “God sent to help people.”

Stewart called Bolling “a very, very good man… and anything you asked him, he would do it.”

Carr echoed that he was “a very good man” recalled riding on Bolling’s truck with others every Saturday to go to Montgomery to shop whether they had money or not.