‘I just can’t say enough about her’
Son’s letter leads to Mother of the Year
BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY
THE CHRONICLE
Anita “Boss Lady” Dean-Arnette and 1340 AM WPOL “The Light” have been honoring mothers of the area for nearly two decades. Her Mother’s Day event, which started in the conference room of the radio station, has grown to host well over 100 attendees annually.
For the 17th year, Dean-Arnette and The Light held their annual “Mother of the Year” luncheon on May, 11 at the Enterprise Center. The station encourages individuals to send in letters to nominate a mother for the title of “Mother of the Year” and they select the winner out of that pool of letters.
This year’s winner was Kay Francis Montgomery, who was nominated by her son, Solomon. Solomon says he decided to write the letter to the radio station about his mother because he felt as though she deserved to be honored in a grand fashion for all the things she has done over the years.
“This makes me feel great and wonderful for her because I know I could never give her a big ceremony or recognition like this,” he said. “I just wanted to put her name in the running because God has always kept my mother and I have noticed that over the years. I am glad to be alive to be able to see this day and I’m grateful to God. I just can’t say enough about her.”
Kay Montgomery says she was shocked and honored to have been chosen as the “Mother of the Year.” She said her feelings after the winner was announced could not be explained because of how happy she was.
“It was very exciting and it makes me feel great to know that people care and think about me,” she said. “There is no way I can describe my feelings right now but I just want to thank everyone who was involved with making this decision.”
As a prize for being chosen “Mother of the Year,” Montgomery was honored with a cruise. She said she has never been on a cruise before but looks forward to the experience.
The second place winner was Evangelist Joan Walden, who said she felt blessed to be honored in this manner and wanted to thank her children for the lovely letter they wrote.
“I think this is a beautiful occasion because mothers work so hard and diligently in trying to raise our kids,” Walden said. “I taught school for 32 years, so I have raised a lot of kids all over. To see mothers smiling from young to old, I am thankful that I am among the living to be able to celebrate this upcoming Mothers Day with them.”
The third place winner was Frances Ferrell, who said she was very surprised and happy to everyone involved for nominating her.
Azalee Vinson and Peggy Shelton were the fourth and fifth place win-ners, respectively.
Dean-Arnette had a number of honorable men-tion mothers such as, Mary Welch, Veronica Chatman,
Vanessa Kessee, Tandeka Boko, Dejon Scales, Blondella Johnson, Rev. Bessie Massey, Australia Brunson, Irene Whitaker and Twanna Stuckey.
Three mothers were honored posthumously and had letters written by Sharon Turner, Maria Benson and Romonia Alston.
Along with honoring the mothers and honorable mentions, Dean-Arnette also gave a special thanks to a long time listener, Eshe Johnson, who has been a loyal fan of hers for a very long time. Dean-Arnette honored her with a plaque, picture and flowers for her dedication. Dean-Arnette was grateful to have such a dedicated listener and said, “If I can touch one person as I travel along this way, then my living is not in vain.”
Dean-Arnette says she was pleased with the event but would love the opportunity to get the word out to more mothers because she feels this is such an uplifting event.
“I would love to see it touch more women in the community and get the word out to those that are not aware of this event,” she said. “I just think if we could touch more women it would be a blessing to them because everyone who comes is touched in some way.”
“If we could get into the community more and let people know that there is someone that cares about them, loves them and appreciates them. This really impacts me because my mother is deceased, so all of these mothers are like my mom and I get really emotional when I see them because they have a tie to me in some way.”
