Neamer Vicie Marie Propps Connelly was born May 6, 1924. The sixth child of the late Oscar and Lee Sypert Propps in rural Center Point, Arkansas. Her childhood rearing and early education took place there. The Center Point Church of Christ was central to the town and her family's life. Sis Connelly's mother, sisters and brothers belonged to the Church and her uncles were deacons and elders in the Church. During a tent revival at the age of about 10, she was reborn in the local creek.

Because of an allergic reaction to the fields, she escaped the sun scorching, backbreaking labor of the family farm, cutting sugar cane and chopping cotton. Instead, she toiled tirelessly managing the home, making soap, cooking, sewing and earned extra money for the family laundering and ironing clothes. At an early age, she told one of her uncles, "I am going to sit behind a desk when I grow up." At the death of her father during her mid-teens, the family moved to Little Rock. She attended Scipio Jones High School, played on the girls' basketball team, participated in intramural sports and in the glee club. Sis. Connelly furthered her studies at the historical Dunbar High School and Junior College of Little Rock, receiving a two year certificate, and she then continued her studies at Johnson Business School in Little Rock.

During World War II her long-time friend, Mrs. Pearl Cook, convinced her to migrate to Washington, D.C., and accepted a job with the US Navy Department in 1945. She immediately sent her uncle a picture of her behind a desk. Her tenure at Navy stretched 10 years. After that she joined the Department of Agriculture, and retired from that agency after many years as a computer techician, with a total of 41 years of government service.

Shortly after her arrival in the Nation's Capitol. Sis. Connelly sought out the 13th & Irving Street Church of Christ, which was then worshiping at 436 K Street, S.W. There she was warmly greeted by down-home girlfriends, the late Sis. Opal Miller and Myrtle Greer and other members. She placed membership that first day in 1945 and often reminisced about the fun she had at Sis. Heath's aunt's house. Mrs. Harriet Taylor. Sis. Connelly was an active participant in Church's activities, including serving as a Sunday School teacher, Church Secretary, member of the Young Mothers' Group, the Christian Echoes singing group, and finally the Senior Saints. She helped feed the homeless and served at repasts, was active with the Washington DC Chapter of the Dunbar High School Alumni, crocheted and laughed often with the senior Connection Group at Providence Hospital.

In 1945 at Dunbar Night School for adults, she met her soon-to-be husband, the late Bro. David Connelly, who she often said. "he just seemed to be following me around." Their union spanned 53 years of devotion until his death in 2002. All of Sis. Connelly's siblings predeceased her. brothers Harold, Thaddeus, Luther, Thelma Lee and Calvin Propps, and her sisters, Lossie Vaughn and Celestine Head.



To be continued!!!