Founders Day Tribute

The founder of our beautiful organization that we are a part of is William Mark Sexson. His birthday is July 8, 1877.   He was born in Missouri, but moved many times.  At the age of 14 he began his ministry and soon after became an ordained minister when he was just 17 years old. 

He became a Master Mason in 1902.  Soon after he moved to Oklahoma where he continued to be an active member in his lodge.  In 1923 he was elected to serve as the Grand Master.  He also became very involved with the Scottish Rite and Eastern Star.    

During this time he decided an order for girls was needed.  He expressed the idea to the Worthy Matron.  She loved it and said that  “We would start it if we had someone write the ceremony of initiation.” Rev. Sexson accepted the challenge and wrote the ritual and gave it the name “Order of the Rainbow for Girls”.

He asked the officers of South McAlester Chapter No. 149, O.E.S., to exemplify the ceremony and furnished them with typewritten copies of the Ritual.  On April 6^th, 1922, the degrees were given for the first time to 171 girls in the auditorium of the Scottish Rite Temple in McAlester, Oklahoma.

Rev. Sexson formed the Supreme Body in June of 1922. He wrote the governing laws and was made the Supreme Recorder.  Later, he received the title of the Supreme Worthy Advisor Emeritus.

On December 20, 1953, Rev. Sexson died in a hospital in McAlester, OK. The funeral service was held at the church where he served as minister for many years and where the Ritual of our Order was written.  

There are two special days that we honor in our organization. The first is Founder’s Day, which is recognized on his birth date of July 8th.  The other is the Sunday closest to April 6^th,  which is  to recognize and celebrate our anniversary.  Fun fact….did you all know that on the day the assembly goes to church, no member of the assembly is excused unless sick or out of the area?!

This great man created the organization we are affiliated with today. He is the reason we are all sitting in this room together. He made our friendships possible and why we have memories to hold with us for a life time.

Katie

Manassas #13

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2018 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.