Golden Agers: A calling to be a voice for the voiceless

Glenda McDowell isn’t sure whether she’s a collector or a hoarder, but she’s fine either way.

“My house is a museum,” she says. “From all the places I’ve traveled to during my 12 years in the North Carolina National Guard, let’s just say, I’ve collected stuff.”

Born in Morganton in 1950, McDowell and her mother relocated to Asheville in the late 1950s and lived with family in the East End neighborhood. Decades later, on the heels of urban renewal, McDowell purchased her home in the same area.

“The house was a mere shell at the time,” she says. “The builder was just trying to get rid of it. I saw its potential, so I made an offer. I was a single working mom with two kids and had to fight for shutters and gutters, as there weren’t any.”

After her 12-year stint with the National Guard, McDowell chose a different career path: mediation.

“I got my training at Asheville’s Mediation Center, then worked there for 21 years. Afterward, I spent the next 10 years with the Asheville City Schools (ACS), with a focus on conflict resolution. I seemed to be a natural at mediation.”

Church, however, has always been first and foremost for McDowell.

“From the age of 8,” she says, “my mom would take me to Sunday services at our neighborhood church. St. Matthias Episcopal Church became my anchor, my outlet, a place where strong leaders and powerful women took an interest in me.”

During those Sunday services, though, she couldn’t help but notice a certain void in the church’s leadership.

“No one there looked like me,” she says. “All the church leaders were white males. I soon realized my calling as an African American woman was leadership: to stand up and have a voice for those that didn’t have a voice.”

McDowell’s dream turned into reality when she became the first African American woman to be ordained as a deacon in the diocese of Western North Carolina. Having gone through a two-year training program at the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina in Asheville, she joined Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village in 2011.

“My title is ‘reverend,’ but my actions are that of a deacon,” she says.

“I feel nothing but gratitude for my life’s work,” she adds, “and I’ll continue be a strong voice through my community activism and volunteering.”

After working for 60 years, McDowell admits that she’s more than ready to retire, spend more time with her family, and sleep in on Sunday mornings.

McDowell’s last service at Cathedral of All Souls will be on Christmas Eve, then she’ll officially retire on Jan. 1.

Editor’s note: Golden Agers is a monthly feature that explores local residents who are retired or semiretired but remain active in the community. This story was updated — an early version misrepresented McDowell’s birth year.