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Alaska Women's Department History
The Alaska Department of Women is an organization focusing on dedicating their lives to God and their services to the Church Of God In Christ.
The State of Alaska Department of Women was founded and established according to God’s Purpose and plan. The first woman on the scene, in 1947 was the late Mother Josephine Stephens, followed by her sister, in 1949, Mother Emma Avery. Mother Josephine Stephens moved to Alaska and stated prayer in her home. Her faithfulness began to draw others, and soon those gathered grew large enough to summons Bishop L. E. Tolliver (First Alaska Overseer (Bishop)) to Alaska to lead these newly converted people of God thus the rugged seedlings of the Church Of God In Christ were planted.
In early territorial times, the initial spiritual and powerful training of Mother Ira Lee Cotton, the First State Supervisor, was unparallel. Under her instruction, women received a special blessing by partaking of her God-given wisdom. Mother Cotton’s earnest commitment to prayer and the study of God’s word proved to be a solid example by which the state of Alaska Women’s Department was established.
After the demise of Mother Cotton, the Women’s Department excelled under the loving guidance of Mother Lillie Mae Howard as the Alaska State Supervisor 1984-1995. She was appointed by the Alaska Prelate, Bishop Charles D. Williams. Mother Howard continually taught and admonished the women to pray and seek God’s face. Her gentle spirit, and commitment to the standards set by her predecessor, Mother Cotton, is sincerely appreciated. Mother Howard, being an avid writer established a resourceful asset to every saint’s library, the “Job Description & Other Helps” booklet that gives information on how to operate in your church on the local, district, jurisdictional and national levels. She provides the descriptions of every position in the State Women’s Department and examples on how to apply each function.
The booklet is still published today and is sold in the Church of God In Christ Bookstore in Memphis, TN.
Mother Mable Gibbons, the current Supervisor for the Alaska Department of Women, steadfast in prayer and sincere abut the work appointed unto her and delegated to the women, has taken the Alaska Department of Women to another level according to the grace of God bestowed upon her in the fall of 1995 when she was appointed. Mother Gibbons implemented a program called, M.A.L.T. (Mentoring Auxiliary Leadership Training), that trains and mentors every licensed woman and laywoman alike, about the Old and New Testament, Church of God in Christ history including the life and history of our founder Bishop C.H. Mason, and pioneers of the Women’s Department as well as how to speak and prepare a message for the people of God. As a member and secretary of the International Examination Board for the International Women’s Department, Mother Gibbons works untiringly with Mother Willie Mar Rivers, the General supervisor and her stag in the International Women’s Department.
The Alaska Department of Women adopted the following Mission Statements and Goals of Operation that consists of Boards, Units and Auxiliaries. This ministry relates to the Spiritual, physical and emotional needs of women and children.
It is committed to supporting the leaders and church by implementing the set goals and objectives. It is their endeavor to develop women and future leaders of godly character to meet the ever-changing challenges of today’s society by: providing them with leadership skills through workshops, seminars, retreats, conferences and other developmental activities.
Their goal is to empower women to develop wholesome friendships and to devote themselves to service, good works and keep the spirit of the National Department of Women’s motto: BETTER HOMES, BETTER SCHOOLS, BETTER CHURCHES, BETTER COMMUNITIES, AND A BETTER WORLD.
Alaska Jurisdictional Women's Department Pioneers
Mother Josephine Stephens
Founder of the Church Of God In Christ -Alaska
On November 6, 1947 , Mother Josephine Stephens arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska to join her husband, Mister Noble Lee, who worked for the F.E. Gold Mine and Company. He had arrived there in April of the same year.
Being in that cold, distant, and strange land didn’t squelch her desire for fellowship and communion with the Lord and His people. Her first home was in the Savory Hotel where she only had a room. Just the same she held daily prayer and hoped for a church. How lonely she must have been, hoping and waiting.
After two years, she persuaded her sister and her husband to join them in Alaska. In 1949, Sister Emma Avery, her husband and three children joined them. Sister Stephens now had a prayer partner. These two prayed together and soon they had a convert, Sister Christine Siah. Now they were able to hold Sunday School with the two families and there new convert. Elder L. E. Tolliver sent Sunday School literature form his church in Seattle, Washington. He had been Sister Stephen’s pastor.
The Avery Family moved into a one room wanigan (as far as I could find out from research was that this was some type of boat or barge that was moored), on Third Street. Anyway, it had no running water or any inside facilities whatsoever. It was necessary to buy their drinking water. This was officially the place for whatever public church service they wanted to hold. So they started with Sunday School, the Averys and the Stephens as members.
Eventually the Stephens family purchased property on Ladd street and built a house. Everything was primitive (wood stove to cook their meals and to furnish heat). The family laundry was done by hand in a wash-tub and on an old fashion scrub board. There were no sidewalks or streetlights. Anyway, Sister Stephens found time to keep on praying. As a few more people joined them, her main concern was for a church. They wanted a pastor so they bought a ticket and sent for Elder Tolliver to come and be the pastor. He came in 1950, but soon realized they needed someone to fill the gap when he couldn’t be there.
He sent for Mother Ira Lee Cotton to come to assist in teaching and to help organizing churches in that faraway land. She would serve with him a Territorial Mother as he would the first Overseer. This was before Alaska became a state in the United States in 1959. Elder Tolliver came to Alaska in the Spring but he always left the beginning of winter. Mother Cotton’s presence there during those beginning day s was a comfort to the saints.
Mother Stephens lived to see her dream fulfilled and to work in the organization she prayed so earnestly for it to be. Her day there totaled 49 plus years. She went home to be with the Lord in 1996.
Mother Emma Avery
Co-Founder of the Church Of God In Chirst - Alaska
Mother Emma Avery was the fourth child of five, and this helped to shape her personality an awful lot. Being just a little girl, she was very aware of when her mother passed. Subsequently, she went to live with her older sister and had to work in the cotton fields for extremely long hours to help with expenses. She married at an early age and her first child was born shortly after her 17th birthday. She began working at a California cannery and it was during the time she accepted Christ in her life and became an active Bible Band Teacher. Throughout the years, God blessed Mother Avery and her husband with eleven more children
In October 1949, she traveled to Fairbanks from California to join her husband who had found a good job working on Ladd Field, what is now known as Fort Wainwright. While her husband worked, she stayed at home raising the children, but eventually began to work outside the home. She was employed as a laundry worker, and did domestic work for several prominent families. She retired from the State of Alaska in 1988.
Having a very strong belief in God, as our Lord and Savior, she dedicated her life to him and began to have prayer services in her one-bedroom home with her sister Josephine Stephens who is the fonder of the Church Of God In Christ Alaska Jurisdiction and First Church Of God In Christ. These were hard times, with extremely cold weather. They had no running water and no inside restrooms. They had to buy drinking water and used wood and coal for heating. There were many times they were without transportation. There were no sidewalks or streetlights. Fairbanks was truly the last frontier and like a wilderness.
With a determination to keep the faith and being influenced by the divine power of the Holy Ghost, many blessings have been bestowed upon Mother Avery. She has served tirelessly in several capacities, including Sunday School Superintendent for over 50 years. Church Missionary, Sunday School and Bible Band Teacher, choir Member, Prayer leader and she also served on the usher Board. She has participated in numerous fund raising activities for the church and took pride in making sweet potato and apple pies that were sold throughout the community for many years.
In addition to attending church, she has concentrated her time and attention visiting with the sick and those in the hospital and nursing homes sharing the goodness of God’s word, mercy and grace. She truly gives all the Glory to God.
Mother Ira Lee Cotton
First State Supervisor of Alaska
Ira Lee Cotton was born March 29, 1899 in Levernia, Texas and grew up in San Antonio.
She was baptized in 1910 into the Baptist faith and later converted into the Holiness Way as a result of a Gospel Revival in 1915 where she experienced the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with speaking in tongues under the leadership of Elder L.C. Ford of San Antonio.
Ira Lee traveled throughout Texas as part of a gospel singing group and did mission work as well. She Married in 1917 and was the mother of five(5) children. In 1944 after her children were grown, she resumed her evangelistic work in Arizona, California, and Seattle, Washington. Her ministry was totally committed to serving others, visiting the jails and serving breakfast there and in the nursing homes. She toured hospitals offering spiritual comfort and inspiration; all in hope of turning lost souls to God. In Washington, Ira worked with the youth and was instrumental in forming a youth corps and the first Statewide Youth Day which has now become an annual event.
She did not limit her activities to teaching and singing. As part of a group calling themselves “personal workers”, she produced clothing in various sizes, sewing many times until the late hours in order to meet the needs of entire families. She gathered food and clothing into a store and distributed them amongst the poor. She offered her services gladly to families; cleaning, washing, and caring for children some fatherless, others motherless.
Ira Lee’s initial trip to Alaska was in 1952. She served so faithfully and tirelessly that the National Headquarters appointed her to serve as “Territorial Mother of Alaska” in 1953. She returned to stay in 1954 under the leadership of Bishop L.E. Tolliver until his death 1967, when Elder Charles D. Williams was appointed State Bishop. Her first tour of duty was in Fairbanks where she experienced hardships which tested her faith. After her subsequent move to Anchorage, the house she lived in was so poorly insulated that many nights she sat in one chair with her feet propped up on another one to escape the cold draft. She recalls snow drifting in under the door and her blanket sticking to the walls where ice had accumulated during the night. This did little to deter Ira Lee Cotton’s dedication “to serving others.” She attended worship service in below zero weather visiting the Native Villages to deliver food and clothing to those less fortunate. Many of the requests for assistance came late at night but she persevered.
Ira Lee resided in Anchorage and attended the Friendly Church Of God In Christ as a co-worker with Bishop Charles D. Williams. She served as the first State Supervisor of the Women’s Department, organizing women auxiliaries such as the Young Women’s Christian Councils, Lavender Ladies, Sunshine Bands, Sewing Circles, Prayer and Bible Bands, within each representative church and mission throughout the State of Alaska.
After a period of illness which she could not overcome, the Lord came and escorted her home on February 19, 1984 from the Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, California.
Ira Lee Cotton was a source of strength to the groups to which she ministered. Her sweet spirit, her unusual gift of wisdom and understanding, her deep love for the Lord, and her willingness to give herself completely to Him through this ministry will be long remembered. Truly she was one of our valiant women.
Mother Lillie Mae Howard
Second State Supervisor of Alaska
Biography to Come
Mother Mable Gibbons
Third and Present State Supervisor of Alaska
Click Picture for Biography
Mother Fannie Mae Williams
Present Jurisdictional First Lady
Biography
Mother Fannie Mae Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana and was the fourth child of Bennie and Martha Benjamin. She was saved at the tender age of eight under the late Bishop C. C. Cod in Weid, California. In her early years, She received spiritual guidance, direction and support from Mother Mattie McGlothen who was her State Supervisor (former General Supervisor of Women of International COGIC). Two other grater women were her mentors in the person of Mother Rita Douglas and Mother Ester Hurst. Most of her summer vacations were spent in one of their homes.
Prior to moving to Alaska, she served as Sunshine Band President at the age of sixteen, Junior Church Mother at the age of eighteen. For four years, Mother Williams served as the YPWW Chairlady for the Stockton, California, District for four years and served on the State Usher Board for eight years.
Mother Came to Alaska in May of 1953. She received her Evangelist Missionary license in 1959 under our pioneer State Supervisor Mother Ira Lee Cotton. Mother Williams was the first District Missionary in the Northern District servicing from 1969 to 1984 under District Superintendent Elder Ivory Thornton.
Mother Williams served in the South Central District during the Tenure of Four Superintendents, Elder William A. Webb, Elder Odell Townsend, Elder Nathaniel Neal, and Elder Lincoln L. Snow. She also served the Friendly District with Superintendent Joe Gibbons. On the State Level Mother Williams served at Mother Cotton’s State Chairlady and on the Examination and Finance Boards. She yet serves on the State Examination, State Advisory, State Finance Boards. She is also the Chairperson for the Bishop C. D. Williams Scholarship Award.
Mother Williams’ work has extended to the National church. She has served as an aide to the International Supervisor during three administrations: mother Lillian Coffey, Mother Ana Bailey and Mother Mattie McGlothen. She is currently a member of the Bishop’s Wives Circle, Assistant Membership Chairperson of the Business and Professional Women’s Federation; and serves as financier for the Home and Foreign Missions Department.
Mother Mazie O. Parham
Former Assistant State Supervisor
Co-Founder of Lily of the Valley Church Of God In Christ, Inc. -Fairbanks, Alaska
Biography to Come
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State of Alaska Jurisdictional Department of Women, Church Of God In Christ 
