Ophelia Hall may be approaching her 88th birthday, but she’s got more spring in her step than some half her age.
“I love being active, and I want to stay active for as long as I can,” she said.
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Hall moved to Greenwood in 1960 when her first husband, who grew up in the area, got a job at the local post office. She was happy with the relocation.
“I like a small town,” she said.
In 1962, she started a Gold Bond stamp business in Greenwood. Gold Bond stamps and S&H green stamps were small paper coupons given to customers by merchants in loyalty marketing programs. Customers could collect the stamps, and when they accumulated a certain number, they could exchange them with the trading stamp company for toys, housewares, furniture, appliances and other goods.
“We had some good items,” she said.
Hall’s business was a supplier of the stamps for Piggly Wiggly grocery stores in Greenwood and the surrounding areas for 20 years before closing in 1982.
After that, she worked for a retailer until its closing and then was employed by Fred’s until her retirement in 1993, which ended her 51 years in the workforce. But retirement did not slow her down.
Hall is treasurer of the Greenwood Woman’s Club, president of O’Bera Garden Club and president of the women’s group at First Christian Church, where she is also a member. She is a member of the Friends of the Greenwood-Leflore Public Library and the Friends of the Museum of the Mississippi Delta.
She is also very active at her church. She often cooks food to take to her church, and she kept the nursery there for 12 years.
“I love my church,” she said. “We have a small church, but everybody loves each other. It’s just a good group.”
She also enjoys working in her yard, planting flowers or raising tomato plants. Her favorite flowers to plant in the wintertime are pansies, and her favorite summertime flowers are petunias and wax begonias.
“I love working in the yard,” she said.
Although Hall never had children of her own, she is still considered a mother, grandmother to two and great-grandmother to five.
“They are my family,” she said proudly. “The grandchildren know me as their grandmother. They call me ‘Bebe,’ and they love me just like a grandmother.”
What Hall may be best known in Greenwood for now is her work with Relay for Life of Leflore County.
She is the oldest working volunteer at Relay for Life. She started working with Relay in 1998, when the local event was just a couple of years old. She was asked to volunteer since she was already an active community member.
Although Hall has never had cancer, she was recruited to be on the Survivors Team. She is still a member of that group and walks with it every year.
Hall was also motivated to be involved with Relay for Life because she has been affected by the disease.
“I have five in my family who have died from cancer,” she said.
For the last three years, Hall has overseen the survivors’ dinner at the event. She sends invitations to local cancer survivors each year and collects donations for the meal from places such as Greenwood Market Place, Sonic, Fred’s and Steven’s Bar-B-Q.
She also raises money for the American Cancer Society each year. She has her usual donors she visits annually, such as her church, doctors, veterinarians, friends and businesses.
“If I see somebody, I’ll ask, ‘Would you like to give to Relay for Life?’” Hall said.
This year, her team collected $2,100.
“I told them I wasn’t going to be in it next year, because I’ll be pushing 89, and they said, ‘Yes, you are. We couldn’t do with it without you,’” Hall said. “I don’t mind doing it. I love it.”
Hall attributes her longevity to exercise and a healthy diet.
“I’ve exercised and ate right,” she said. “When I was coming up, we never did have hamburgers and stuff like that. We had vegetables, and your diet is your main thing, and I walked. When I moved to Greenwood, all of us where I lived rode bicycles or walked at night after supper. We just got out and walked, and I’ve always done that.”
•Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7233 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
