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Innovative Administrator
invited to take departmental work in one of the local conferences, she preferred to retire,
being past 70 years of age. However, she did agree to shoulder responsibility temporarily
in two of the new conferences until her successors were in place. Thus she continued in
the South Atlantic Conference until March 1946 and in the South Central Conference
until November of that year.
In retirement Anna Knight lived at Oakwood College. There she influenced still
another generation of emerging Adventist leaders.
During the last year of her life, when she was 98, she received the General Conference
Department of Education Medallion of Merit Award on November 17, 1971. At that
time only 12 such awards had been made. (From L. A. Paschal, “Woman Approaching
100th Birthday Given Merit Award,” Review and Herald (June 15, 1972): 22.)
The next year on June 3, death claimed the pioneer missionary. She left behind an
astonishing record. The Mississippi farm girl had emerged from poverty and illiteracy to
become a powerful force for progress. Early dedicating her life to Christ, she lived by
principle through her nearly one hundred years. Sometimes she struggled over decisions, not knowing which way to turn. At such times she chose to “pray and work on”
until God made the next move clear.
She accomplished goals unthought of in her youth. Anna Knight conducted more than
9,000 meetings and traveled the equivalent of 23 trips around the world, Knight,
Mississippi Girl, p.223. (See appendix A, 4.1.) not counting her trips to, from, and within
India. “My work required the writing of 48,918 letters,” she discovered upon totaling a
lifetime’s accumulation of monthly reports. Missionary visits numbered 11,744.
People whom she brought to Christ, students educated in schools established under
her guidance, and men and women who heard her speak still fondly cherish the memory
of this remarkable servant of God and leader of humankind. Particularly for many
natives in India and for hundreds of black people in the South, Anna Knight showed
repeatedly that one committed, consecrated Christian person can make a difference.

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