By By LYDIA GRIMES – Features writer
There are those who stand out while others are content to stay in the background. Mickey Flowers is one of those who labors hard and is happy to stay out of the limelight.
Flowers is the maintenance supervisor at First Baptist Church of Brewton, but the title describes only a small portion of what he really does at the church.
Besides getting the church ready for worship services on Sunday morning, there are many events scheduled for other times during the week that require the attention of Flowers. And then there are the emergencies that come up. Flowers is the one who is called when the copier/printer breaks down in the church office. He is called upon when something goes wrong with the electrical system, and there is always cleaning and setting up for the special events that occur at the church on an almost weekly basis.
Flowers is not only the maintenance supervisor at the church, he is also an active member of that same church.
Flowers is in charge of the men's ministries, which is involved with several community happenings.
The men are organized and prepared to step in and lend a helping hand to several projects. They have a crew of workers that work with Habitat for Humanity and each year they organize a mission trip.
They have been on several mission trips to Mexico, but this year they have stepped up to help people who are close neighbors to the west.
Brewton suffered through Hurricane Ivan, and the members of the church saw how helping hands from all over the United States came to the community's aid. The church members believe they can now return the help by sending the mission members to Waveland, Miss., to help.
One of the events that is always a special challenge for Flowers is the annual Wild Game Supper. This is an event that began several years ago and has continued to be rewarding for the church and those that come every year.
Flowers was born in Mobile but moved to Goodway when he was very young. His grandparents adopted him and his two younger siblings when he was only 6 years old. Arthur and Ethel Flowers had children still living at home when the three children were added to the household. They were brought up on a country farm.
Flowers attended school at Goodway until the schools were consolidated. He then attended J.U. Blacksher School in Uriah. He graduated from there in 1967 where he was what he called &#8220an average student.” He was athletic and played basketball, track and football after his grandfather was assured by Coach Rhodes that the sports would not interfere with farm chores.
When he turned 19 years old, Flowers was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent, first to Columbus, Ga., and then to Fort Knox, Ky. This was during the time of the war in Vietnam, but Flowers was sent in another direction. He went to Frankfurt and Erglander, Germany, with the Armored Battalion of the 4th Army Division.
After serving three years in the military, Flowers joined a company that was based overseas and got to travel even more. When the company closed down, he joined the military for the second time in Furth, Germany for three more years. He was then sent back to the United States. He became a tank instructor and flew around in a Huey helicopter with General Kingston teaching people in England, Turkey, Italy and others in their own countries.
At the end of three years, he decided not to re-enlist.
He came back to Monroe County and attended Hobson State Technical College at Thomasville on his GI Bill for two years.
He worked there for five to six years, then went to Rainbow Paint and married his wife, Donna, in 1978.
Flowers has two children, Jason and Jennifer.
Jason works at Smurfit Stone and is married to Angela, with whom he has two sons, Duane and Dawson Mitchell. Jennifer is a student at Jefferson Davis Community College.
Flowers' wife, Donna, is a registered nurse at D.W. McMillan Memorial Hospital, and they live in East Brewton.
Flowers says he doesn't have much free time, but he does love to fish and do some woodworking in his shop.
He is a follower of T.R. Miller football and collects anything having to do with the University of Alabama.