"Lucy-Madden-Smith" 1875-1952)

After a move to Athens, Georgia,William Founded the interracial All Nations Pentecostal Church in Chicago,becoming the first woman in the city to transform the roving congregation into an established church.She was said to be known as the "preacher to the disinherited class." In 1925 Elder Smith,as she became known,first broadcast her Sunday night services night services over radio station WSBC;later station WIND aired her services on Sundays & Wednesdays.She was the first African American religious leader to broadcast services on the air.In 1933 she became a pioneer in African American gospel radio,exposing her ministry to wider audiences.Lucy was the first in the city to mix gospel programing with appeals for the poor.She was born on a plantation in Oglethorpe County,Georgia.She had little education,Lucy learned to read later in life.Lucy married in 1896 and by 1910 had nine children.After a move to Athens,Georgia,William Smith abandoned the family and Lucy struggled to support their their children on her own.She moved to Atlanta and then to Chicago,arriving in spring 1910 during the black migration.There she joined Oliver Baptist Church,became dissatisfied,and left in 1912 to join Ebenezer Bptist Church.Then she became curious about the Pentecostal faith and attended Stone Church,wherethe Pentecostal congregation was white.Two years later she was baptized into that faith,continued to attend Stone,and then received her calling as "divine healer." She offered solace to the socially disinherited in Chicago,held prayer meetings in her one-room house,and then founded All  Nations Pentecostal Church in 1916.