MIAMI — What started as an opportunity to do accounting and bookkeeping turned into a 50-year career of ministry to the people of downtown Miami for Roberta Graddy, secretary of First United Methodist Church here. The Rev. Joe Teague and members of the church will honor Graddy May 16 for her years of service to the church and the people of its inner-city neighborhood.

The Rev. David Waller, vice president for financial development at the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home, worked with Graddy during his two years as associate pastor of the church. He said she was fully devoted to the church, claiming it as her mission. “She has taken it on as a real vocation,” he said. “She typifies a lay person that has given so much of herself to the work of the church. Roberta almost fell into the category of social worker for the people that came into the office for aid.”

Graddy says she is intentionally friendly to people who come into or call the church office because that first contact is sometimes the only impression of the church people get. “The main thing…is to treat everyone alike, from the lowest person in the street to the top person in the church,” she said, “because that’s the way God wants you to treat people.”

But Graddy has done more than just greet people who have come to the church looking for help. In 1975, she started her own ministry in the church’s neighborhood. She says she made peanut butter sandwiches and served them and coffee to anyone who stopped by the church needing a meal. She also made a point of speaking to each person as they received their food.

Graddy says she has watched the community change over the years. “I can remember the Sunday the first black person came in to take Communion,” she said. “A lot of people wanted to gather up and walk out. I think one walked out, and the rest accepted it.”

She has also witnessed changes within the denomination, according to Waller. She was part of the transition when the congregation from White Temple United Brethren Church joined Trinity Methodist Church, a part of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, after the White Temple church burned down. The two congregations merged to form what is now First United Methodist Church.

“The world’s changed, but you have to accept change,” she said, “like churches going on to computers.”

Although she isn’t entirely pleased with the transition to computers, she does appreciate how they’ve simplified many tasks. “People now don’t realize how simple it is to do things,” she said, “but [back] then things always looked better.”

Teague said Graddy not only accepted the change to computers, she helped make the transition smoother. When the church’s computer lost the accounting records, Graddy came to the rescue. “We rebuilt the records from her hard copies,” he said.

Graddy said she has enjoyed her life and would do it all over again. “I have always liked my job, always,” she said. “I could have made more money somewhere else, but life is too short to do something you don’t like just for money.”