Mainstay in AME church dies at 88

"Mom loved music. She would be sitting in church, and she would get up and direct the congregation," said her daughter, Elizabeth "Ann" Fortune-Gamble, lovingly recalling those moments at Prince Chapel AME Church, 602 S. Stone Ave.

"Her favorite hymn was 'If I Can Help Somebody,' " Fortune-Gamble said. "She played the piano during the Adult Day Care Program at Handmaker's, and would invite folks to sing."

Elizabeth Ann Hairston was born May 12, 1924, in Gary, W.Va., to Ida Bell Hairston. She graduated at 16 from Douglas High School in Huntington, W.Va., and went on to cosmetology school and nursing school, said Fortune-Gamble.

Hairston married Walter Henry Frank Samuel Fortune on Oct. 16, 1958, in St. Louis. She joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where her husband accepted his call to preach.

Fortune was a minister's wife from 1964 to 2004, and the couple served at Tucson's Prince Chapel from 1981 to 1986.

In addition to singing, directing and playing the piano and organ at the churches her husband served in Missouri, Nebraska, Arizona and New Mexico, Fortune was a member of the Thomas A. Dorsey Music Convention and the Gospel Music Workshop of America, and was a founding member of the Tucson chapter.

Fortune also was a member of the Child Evangelism Fellowship, and was an evangelist in the Free Will Baptist Church and the AME Church.

Fortune was preceded in death by her husband. In addition to her daughter, Fortune-Gamble, and son-in-law, David Gamble, of Tucson, Fortune is survived by two sisters and numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services are today beginning with the viewing at 9 a.m. followed by 10 a.m. services at Prince Chapel AME, 602 S. Stone.

Burial will follow at Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista, where Fortune will lie alongside her husband.

Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at 573-4104 or cduarte@azstarnet.com