Queen E. Wooten Lawrence: Ebonettes 2020 “Dare to Make a Difference” Honoree
DURHAM, NC – Queen Elizabeth Wooten Lawrence was to have been honored at The Ebonettes Service Club’s 48th Founders Day that was scheduled for Saturday, March 21, 2020. The Covid 19 pandemic canceled the celebration. Lawrence received the 2020 “Dare to Make a Difference” Award (virtually)in the Service to Youth and Community category. Since 2002, the Founders Day program annually has showcased hard-working Durham citizens in the “Dare to Make A Difference Recognition Program.”
The other outstanding 2020 “Dare to Make a Difference” Honorees are Kasib Abdullah, Juliet Black, Garisha Davis, Joseph K. Davis, Jr., Rev. Dr. William M. McCoy, Jr., Angela Pittman, Gail S. Taylor, and Judge Doretta Walker.
About Queen E. Wooten Lawrence
Queen Elizabeth Wooten Lawrence was born in Whiteville, NC to the late James Henry and Queen Esther Nichols Wooten. She is one of five children in the family: three brothers, Henry, Ervin, and Thurman (deceased); and a sister, Harlene.
Queen graduated from Mount Olive High School in Whiteville and received a Bachelor of Science degree in business education from North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University). After graduation, she was employed by Mechanics and Farmers Bank until her marriage to the late Dr. William W. Lawrence, at which time she moved to Tacoma, Washington.
In Tacoma, Queen was employed by the Tacoma-Pierce County Probation Department as a probation officer and was actually the first African American female probation officer in the state of Washington. When Queen and her husband returned to Durham in 1969, she returned to Mechanics and Farmers Bank where she held several positions before being named assistant vice president and personnel director. Additional courses of study included banking courses taken through the American Banking Institute and a personnel management program at the University of Ohio. Queen continued working at M&F Bank until 1993 when she retired; however, shortly thereafter, she began a new career as a loan servicing officer with Mutual Community Savings Bank until she retired for the second time in 2001.
Queen’s church home in the Durham community is Community Baptist Church. She works faithfully in her church where she currently serves on the Scholarship Committee, is an active member of the Missionary Department whose ladies prepare and serve meals for the Durham Urban Ministries monthly, and attends Bible Study on a regular basis. For a while, she also served the church as treasurer for several years, was a member of both the hospitality and social committees, and assisted with the Youth Department.
Prior to her second retirement, Queen began volunteering in the afterschool program for the Durham City School System and continued her volunteerism for several years. She worked with the 21st Century Learning Program and with the Ivy Community Center/Alpha Zeta Omega afterschool and summer camp programs. She served as director of the summer camp for two years before stepping down from that position, but she still commits to volunteering with this community program. For many years now, she has added both house manager and office manager for the Ivy Community Center to the list of responsibilities that she handles on a voluntary basis. Within the community, she also assists the Durham Board of Elections with voting every election period by working as a poll worker, something she has done for approximately twenty years now.
A member of the Alpha Zeta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. for more than thirty years, Queen Lawrence has been and continues to be dedicated to the business of the sorority. She has assumed many official duties and responsibilities as well as accolades and commendations through the years of her membership: several committees to include scholarship, audit, budget, membership, Founders’ Day, cotillion, etc.; and several offices, such as treasurer, secretary, reporter, and ICC Board treasurer. In 2008, Queen received the “Outstanding Volunteer Service Award” from the Ivy Community Center, Inc., and in 2017, she was selected to be the recipient of the “Soror of the Month,” a recognition given by the Alpha Zeta Omega Chapter.
Queen was married to the late Dr. William W. Lawrence, Sr. for almost 53 years and she is mother to two children, Dr. William W. Lawrence, Jr., Chief Medical Director for Carolina Complete Health, and Lori Elicia Lawrence who is an assistant principal in the Guilford County Schools. She is “Ma Queen” to grandchildren: Ronald, Robert, and Alisha Dowdy; and great-grandmother to Jayla Dean Dowdy. “Ma Queen” loves spending quality time with her family and friends, but when she has extra time on her hands, she enjoys cooking, shopping, and traveling, too.