SENIOR STAR PASTOR YVONNE HAWKINS - BELL

SENIOR STAR

PASTOR YVONNE HAWKINS' BELL

Pastor Yvonne Hawkins' Bell was born on July 9th, 1939, in Wheeling, West Virginia, but currently lives in the city of Dearborn. Her mother, Elsie Hawkins, worked as a housekeeper. Her father was tragically killed in a coal mine when Bell was just a baby. One part of Yvonne's childhood was dealing with the social issues of the time. The fight for racial equality was underway. "Well, you know in Wheeling, the schools were segregated in West Virginia. But when we came to Detroit you know it wasn't segregated." Around the age of 7 she moved up to Southwest, Detroit, and grew up in a neighborhood called Delray.

One thing she remembers most about growing up in Detroit is the long commute to her school. "We had to walk quite a ways from the house we lived in to the bus stop, and then transfer." Pastor Bell would go on to graduate from Southwestern High School in 1956. After High School she went to work at Mt. Carmel Catholic Hospital. Nursing jobs were in demand and some of the only jobs available for African Americans. Years later in 1993 is when she would start her journey as a pastor. Yvonne did so under Bishop Robert Bernard.

Yvonne wants the readers of the Telegram to know that she is a woman of great faith. She always relies on the Lord and does her best to please him. Pastor Bell's life motto is rooted in her religion. She said, "I live by the scripture. Proverbs 3:6, 'In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

At just five years old she was baptized. Two years later she would receive the Holy Spirit. Once she was 13, she began preaching at Southwest Detroit Apostolic Church, under now Bishop AJ Walker.

She currently is the Pastor of New Creation Church of Apostolic Faith. Yvonne's living relatives are her 8 stepchildren along with her cousins, nieces, and nephews.