Picture Sums Up a Lifetime of Devotion

Beverly Beyette is to be commended for her Around Town column “Two Cultures and One Language: Respect” (Aug. 19). Her report of the Hollenbeck Home picnic that bridged the generation gap and the breaking down of barriers of language and color was heartwarming.

I’m wondering how many Methodist and Church Women United women in Southern California smiled in recognition of seeing Mildred Hutchinson, 99, being kissed by 6-year-old Jesus Leal.

A past president of the Methodist Women’s Conference when Arizona was still joined with Southern California and long before the church joined with the United Brethren to become the United Methodist Women of the Pacific Southwest, Mildred is one of the great leaders of Methodism.

Known and admired by hundreds of women in the nationally known Church Women United movement, it is thrilling to see smiling Mildred Hutchinson alive and well and pictured in a social justice gesture that typifies her lifetime of Christian devotion.

MARY LOU SOUTHWORTH, La Verne