Guy Family Reunion 2026

Gertrude Guy

Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth was Honored at a Black History Celebration at Brown Baptist Missionary Baptist Church on February 10, 2015.

The Guy Family Wish to Honor the Oldest Living Descendant of Millie Guy:
Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth

Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth, Willie Louis Dobbins, Gemenie Bowdre

Civil rights pioneers Gertrude Guy-Bridgforth, Willie Dobbins, Gemenie Bowdre along with Brian Hicks, executive director of the DeSoto County Museum are taking part in the Freedom Summer and Beyond: North Mississippi program at West Oak Grove Church of Christ on Saturday; August 16, 2014.

Congratulations
Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth
on attending your first
State Of The Union Address
in Washington D.C.

You can view the newspaper articles and T.V. interviews of Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth on the Family Ancestry page of the web-site.

Gertrude is the daughter of the late Frazier Guy Sr. & Alder Williams-Guy. She is the oldest grandchild of Earnton Guy Sr.

Send Gertrude an e-mail at: ebridgeforth@bellsouth.net

State of the Union Second Chance

With all due deference and with the full approval of her husband of 63 years, Eddie, 86-year old Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth, of Southaven, is again ready to do some "steppin' out" for another man....who just happens to be the President of the United States.

You may recall last January FOX13 News reported on Mrs. Bridgeforth's enthusiasm about joining her friend, Kelli Jacobs, on a one-thousand mile fourteen hour car trip to see President Obama's inauguration. But, even with one of those sought after "gold tickets" compliments of Mississippi Congressman, Travis Childers, in hand, all didn't prove so golden for the walker-constricted Mrs. Bridgeforth on that frigid January day. A Secret Service gate closing left her and her niece standing in the cold for hours....while an unsuspecting Kelli held a place for her friend who never got there.

Mrs. Bridgeforth remembers, "We got separated because Kelli lived in D.C…I stayed in Maryland with my sister. So communications was bad. We just got out of the line and went to the Union Station and they had a wide screen television and that's where we looked at the inauguration. Just being there. Just knowing you in the crowd. You want to be in, but if you didn't get in as long as I was there."

Jacobs' recalls, "When I found out afterwards that the gate was closed and nobody was let in. Well, I just marched over to my congressman's office when I found out. I said, this is so unfair...to travel so far. My friend is 85 and to not get in because the Secret Service closed it? I said, what are you gonna do to make this up to her?!"

Mississippi Congressman Childers reflects, "I told her I would make it right and I honestly did know that day what I would do. But, I did tell her that I would make it right."

Now, don't you just know where this story is headed...don't 'cha? Well, Congressman Childers starts talking to his wife Tammy about Mrs. Bridgeforth and.....

Childers continued, "We thought about this and I talked to Tammy and Tammy said I would gladly give up that opportunity to let her. To let Mrs. Bridgeforth do that."

Jacobs picks up the story saying, "I got this phone call. We need Gertrude's phone number because we're taking her to the State of the Union and I was like, yessir!"

Bridgeforth says, "I started asking him questions about whose gonna be with me and whose gonna see about me and how was I gonna get through from A to Z? He told me. So, yeah, I am!"

Childers relates, "We're gonna pick her up. We're gonna take care of her just like she's a queen the whole time she's here. Til' we put her back on that plane to get her back to Memphis and Desoto County."

Mrs. Bridgeforth says "Hear Ye, Hear Ye"...President Barak Obama of the United States of America. That's gonna be something."

And that's the story of a "second chance"...so richly deserved.

Click on the link below to view the news interview on Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth:

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/tennessee/012110_state-of-the-union-second-chance

Southaven, Mississippi woman gets insider's view to history

The Commercial Appeal Newspaper
Memphis, Tennessee
Thursday; January 21, 2010
www.commerciapappeal.com

Congressman is her ticket to D.C.

The folks at Brown Missionary Baptist Church in Southaven will be glued to their televisions next week for the president's State of the Union address trying to spy their friend Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth in the audience.

The 86-year-old retired insurance underwriter and Tennessee state employee will be the guest of U.S. Rep. Travis W. Childers, D-Miss., for the hottest ticket in Washington.

"She is the congressman's only guest," said spokesman Dana Edelstein. "His wife, Tami, gave up her seat."

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., flipped a penny when two Memphis businessmen in town for a meeting expressed interest in his single ticket to the event next Wednesday night. It was tails, and Ron Purifoy, the majority owner of packaging company Johnson Bryce Inc. in Memphis, got the nod.

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., offered her ticket to Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and, "according to her, he was thrilled," her spokesman, Claude Chafin, said Wednesday. Later, however, Wharton spokesman Bobby White said there had been a "miscommunication" by both offices and that the mayor would not be able to attend.

Mississippi Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker and Tennessee Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, all Republicans, had not released the names of their invitees by Wednesday evening. U.S. Rep. John Tanner's spokesman, Randy Ford, said his wife or a staff member would attend.

For Bridgeforth, who braved Washington's icy conditions for President Barack Obama's inauguration last January before retreating to Union Station to watch the festivities indoors, it is the opportunity of a lifetime.

"This will be my first State of the Union. I'm excited. I'm honored," she said.

If she gets a chance to talk to the president, she has a few things to say: "I would tell him I appreciate him. He is -- to me he is a great leader," she said.

Bridgeforth's husband of 63 years, Eddie, 89 and retired from Memphis Light Gas and Water Division, won't be there, Mrs. Bridgeforth said. "He wants to come but he won't fly," she said.

Bartholomew Sullivan: (202) 408-2726
Memphis Commercial Appeal

Please click on the link below to view the newspaper article:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jan/21/southaven-woman-gets-insiders-view-to-history/

Gertrude is the daughter of the late Frazier Guy Sr. & Alder Williams-Guy. She is the oldest grandchild of Earnton Guy Sr.

Send Gertrude an e-mail at: ebridgeforth@bellsouth.net

U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, D-Miss., greets Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth Wednesday in Washington ahead of the State of the Union address.

Gertrude Guy-Bridgeforth (left), 86, of Southaven speaks with Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., on Wednesday in Washington. Bridgeforth attended President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address in Washington later in the day with the help of 1st District Rep. Travis Childers.