Promoted to Glory: Commissioner Barbara Ann Jeffrey
Commissioner Barbara Ann Jeffrey was Promoted to Glory on July 27, 2024, at the age of 78.
Barbara Ann Garris was born July 1, 1946, at her Aunt Lilly’s home in Marion, NC, where she lived for the first six years of her life. From an early age, Barbara witnessed Aunt Lilly serving others as she visited the sick, prepared meals, and cleaned their homes. Barbara truly took that virtue of service to heart.
When Aunt Lilly passed away, Barbara moved in with her mother, Gladys, her stepfather, Beau, and her siblings, Glenda, Melvin, John Wayne, and Mary. Beau was often drunk or absent for months at a time. Gladys worked long, hard hours for little pay.
As the eldest child, Barbara assumed many responsibilities including the care of her siblings, meal preparation, and housekeeping. Life was hard. Many times, she and her siblings went to bed hungry. Girls at school would tease her about wearing the same dress every day. All her siblings partook of readily available cigarettes and booze, but Barbara never did.
One day Barbara was playing softball in the yard when she heard music and singing down the street. She ran to find a group of people all dressed alike and playing instruments. After listening for a while, she ran back home and got her mother to follow her. “Mama,” she asked, “who are these people?” Her mother replied, “It’s The Salvation Army! Hurry up! Get in the house; they’re going to take up a collection!” Sometime later there was a knock at the door. A lady from the group, Major Sadie Boyette, said, “I saw some children playing. Do they go to church anywhere? We’d be glad to come and pick them up and take them to Sunday School.” Gladys replied, “No. They don’t have nice enough clothes to go to church.” Major Boyette responded, “They don’t have to have nice clothes to come to The Salvation Army.” The answer was still “NO!". Just days later there was another knock at the door. There stood the major with a bag of clothes. She asked, “Can they come now?”
In Barbara’s teen years new officers arrived, Captains Preston and Helen Leonard. They took Barbara under their wing and encouraged her to answer her calling as an officer. Barbara made a commitment to do so, but her mother asked her to stay home and help. Barbara relented and told the captain she could not go to training. After leaving the corps, Barbara tripped and fell down a flight of stairs. The captain came to help her and said, “What is it you are not going to do?”
After graduating high school – the only one of her siblings to do so – she was off to the School for Officers Training (SFOT) as a member of the Defenders of the Faith session of cadets. There she made new friends and enthusiastically engaged in the training regimen. But in the back of her mind, she was anticipating her family coming to drag her back home. As a result of this stress, one day she was not able to get out of bed and was spitting up blood. She was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery for a bleeding ulcer. The attending physician said she had lost so much blood she might not live another day. Her fellow cadets and the SFOT staff held a prayer meeting as former SFOT Principal Lt. Colonel William Powell prayed outside her hospital room. Barbara testified she felt a warm sensation begin at her feet and move all the way to her head. Later, the doctor came into her room and said, “Looks like you will be going home tomorrow!”
Upon her commissioning, Lieutenant Barbara served as a single officer in Salisbury, Clarksburg, and Morgantown in the Maryland-West Virginia Division (MWV).
On August 23, 1969, she married David E. Jeffrey, whom she met while serving in Morgantown. Together they served in Fairmont, Clarksburg, Front Royal, Grafton, Baltimore Hampden, and Hagerstown, all in MWV. With the rank of captain, Barbara assumed the following roles: divisional corps cadet counselor in the National Capital & Virginia Division, divisional corps cadet counselor in the North & South Carolina Division (NSC), and NSC divisional assistant home league secretary.
Major Barbara then served as assistant to the director of personnel and assistant director of special services at Evangeline Booth College. She also served as home league secretary and coordinator of women’s activities for Georgia Divisional Headquarters.
Her appointments as a Lt. Colonel were divisional director of women’s organization for the Kentucky-Tennessee Division, assistant territorial secretary for program at Southern Territorial Headquarters (THQ), divisional director of women’s ministries for the Texas Division, and territorial secretary of women’s ministries.
Colonel Barbara then served as the national secretary for women’s ministries at National Headquarters (NHQ).
Commissioner Barbara then came back home to THQ to serve as the territorial president of women’s ministries and then back to NHQ as the national president of women's ministries until the Jeffreys’ retirement from active service on August 31, 2017.
Throughout her 50 years as an officer, Barbara never forgot her humble beginnings. No task was too small or too large for her. She continued to work hard, quickly, and methodically in all her roles, serving the Lord and others with all her heart.
Commissioner Barbara Jeffrey is survived by her beloved husband of more than 54 years, Commissioner David Jeffrey; sons David W. and Mark (Sue Ann) Jeffrey; and grandchildren Parker, Blake, and Mitchell.
A celebration of life service will be held at the Gwinnett County Corps in Georgia on July 31, 2024.