Christene Brice is Gulfport’s angel in disguise, helping homeless and registering voters
As afternoon rain drips outside the screen door, 92-year-old Jessie Lee Howard remembers voting for the first time in her life just two years ago, in the last presidential election.
“First time I ever voted,” she said nodding her head while sitting in her kitchen Thursday.
Howard lives in a ramshackle lime-green house that looks more like it belongs in the pre-civil rights era or the middle of the Delta rather than the second-largest city in Mississippi.
But the state’s past is not so distant here, on the ironically named Paradise Alley less than a mile from downtown.
Her demographic — elderly, poor, black — is one many have feared would be disenfranchised by the new voter ID laws sweeping the South and Midwest.
But Election Commissioner Christene Brice is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. She reminds Howard the election is coming up Tuesday and checks to make sure she has an acceptable form of ID, which she does.
Brice’s District 4 has the most black residents in Harrison County and she has set up her voter registration table at many community events recently.
“I’m very concerned about the elderly,” she said, referring to their ability to get an ID. “So I’ve just been trying to get the word out.”
Last month, she set up at the Orange Grove Community Center, her largest precinct, but only a handful of people showed up. She doesn’t mind, though, saying if only one person had come it was worth it.
Brice is much more than just an election commissioner. She taught third grade at Lyman Elementary for 30 years and has been a community activist for longer.
She started a youth organization in 1964 called W.H.Y. — Workers Helping Youth. At one time it sponsored a host of events such as parades, talent exhibitions and anti-drug and mentoring programs.
“People would ask me why I teach children all day and then go out and help children at night,” Brice said. That inspired the group’s name.
She’s been involved in many other organizations over the years. Her name is sprinkled about the Sun Herald’s archives.
In 1999, the Rev. Harry Tartt, a retired minister and
school teacher from Turkey Creek who worked with W.H.Y., described her tireless efforts.
“It keeps me out of breath just to watch the way she goes,” he told the Sun Herald. “I’m 90 years old. I’m way beyond the age of being inspired, but she inspires me.”
Brice may be best known, though, for being someone people turn to when they’re out of options.
“If I can’t find anybody else that can help me with something, I get on the phone and call Ms. Brice,” said Christina Lipke, office manager at Feed My Sheep, who was once homeless.
Brice helped raise $12,000 one time by getting a 4-H club to sell M&Ms to buy a mobile home for an elderly lady who’d caught pneumonia from her leaky roof.
She signed her name on a house note for a $36,000 double-wide trailer to help a girl who’d had a bone marrow transplant.
Brice keeps both her personal vehicle and the white 15-passenger W.H.Y. van full of donated items to give out at a moment’s notice. Much of the time, the recipients are the homeless at Feed My Sheep.
Ted Hearn, a Feed My Sheep board member who coordinates the county’s cold-weather shelter, said Brice helped serve food during most of the 42 nights it was open this year.
Lenora Evans, who frequently eats lunch at Feed My Sheep, said one time Brice overheard her asking someone where to find shoes in larger sizes.
“She went and bought me some shoes out of her money,” Evans said — three different pairs.
The world needs more people like that, she said.
“A lot of people do this so they can sleep at night,” she said of volunteers. “Not Ms. Brice. She’s genuine.”
In response, Brice pointed to the sky. She is very clear about why she helps others so much.
“I’m just doing the Lord’s will,” she said.
