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Meet the secretaries

By ZOE HAGGARD - zhaggard@t-g.com
Posted 4/30/22

Though they may be tucked away in the office, Calvary Baptist church secretaries Florine McCormick and Jeweline Segroves are the frontline faces to the Shelbyville church.

As secretaries, they …

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Meet the secretaries

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Though they may be tucked away in the office, Calvary Baptist church secretaries Florine McCormick and Jeweline Segroves are the frontline faces to the Shelbyville church.

As secretaries, they are responsible for keeping the church organized through creating weekly bulletins, correspondence, ordering supplies, scheduling events, and sending out a special phone call known as the “prayer-chain.”

Both are retired, but McCormick still substitutes in Bedford. Segroves was an English teacher at Community High School for 20 years.

Though she always knew she wanted to teach, Segroves worked in the financial world as a real estate broker for several decades. However, teaching was her passion. So, at the age of 47, she went to Middle Tennessee State University and studied education. She joked she was everyone's “adopted granny” since she was the oldest in her classes.

McCormick, too, had a career change. Originally, from Fayetteville, she grew up a farm girl but eventually moved and worked at the Rutherford Health Department.

Both are also active in their free time. Segroves plays with the Shelbyville Rec Center's Senior Olympic basketball team, while McCormick attends CrossFit931. “I’m usually the oldest one there, but I say, I’m not going to let them out-do me,” she said.

But the two also share something more than just Bedford education, jobs and hobbies. Both have gone through health scares that required a lot of faith and a lot of prayers.

Ten years ago, McCormick underwent brain surgery and, then later, suffered a car wreck. Determined not to sit at home after recovering, she decided to work at Calvary, which she has been attending for close to 40 years.

For Segroves, she had several months of disruption. Around Last Christmas she contracted COVID, which led her to also contract double pneumonia. By that time, she was working at Calvary part time alongside McCormick.

“I prayed all day,” said McCormick. Segroves says she doesn’t remember those first few weeks with COVID. But she says she could “feel the prayers” of her family and friends. She also recalls seeing flashes of her husband Ronnie, who hardly left the hospital during those weeks.

Segroves was eventually sent to the rehabilitation center for a month. She said she finally was able to throw away her oxygen tank two weeks ago.

She light heartedly says she still has “COVID fog” but plans to start back at the church this week.

Their love for Bedford has kept them here for many years. McCormick is back to farming with her husband Mitchell, while Segroves says she loves the small town here.

But both Segroves and McCormick will say it’s the people that keep them at their job at Calvary. They say they have all kinds of people come up to the church looking for financial help or ministry.

“There’s only so much you can do, but we try to help them in any way we can,” said McCormick. One might say it’s a part of their job as the frontline faces of the church.