Water Valley Odd Fellows Lodge Saved With 23 New Members
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Guest Commentary
By Brandon Presley
Presley lives in Water Valley and is Vice-Presi-dent of Strategic Initiatives at Edelen Renewables. He served 16 years as Mississippi Public Service Commissioner and was the 2023 Democratic nominee for Governor of Mississippi.
If you think local journalism doesn’t matter to the health of a community, let the case of the Odd Fellows Lodge of Water Valley be “Exhibit A” in any study of why we need local newspapers that know our communities. I hate to tell you, but Fox News, CNN or whatever national news organization you like, probably doesn’t care about saving a civic organization in Water Valley, Mississippi. Luckily, The North Mississippi Herald does.
On January 22, 2025 Editor David Howell ran a story about how the local Odd Fellows Lodge was in danger of losing its charter in June and closing down for good. The Lodge, chartered all the way back in 1867 in Water Valley, would have died a silent death due to lack of interest.
The article sounded a clarion call to some us of really odd folks who believe the health of our community depends on the strength of our civic organizations that bring us all together across all social lines.
Exactly one month to the day after the article was published, 23 Water Vallians, including myself, gathered this past Saturday morning and were admitted membership in the Lodge. A new breathe of life was put into the lungs of this organization that has a 158 year history of charity in our town.
We owe a special debt of gratitude to our fellow Water Vallians Odie Shuffield and Jeff Clements who have kept the Lodge going the past several years amidst tough times. Thank you also to Benny Rayborn, Mitzi Rayborn, William Preston Self and Clyde Wakefield who have now traveled twice to Water Valley to help save the lodge, install our members and give us guidance.
James McCormick of Crappie Drop fame was the first to call me and say, “We’ve got to save the Odd Fellows Lodge!” after the article published. James gathered a group of us and did the legwork to recruit new members. I’m afraid none of us would have known a thing about the danger zone this great organization and beautiful downtown space was in, had it not been for Editor David Howell alerting us all.
Robert Putnam, in his famous book, “Bowling Alone,” describes the danger to democracy and communities when civic clubs fail and people go into their individual and selfish silos of life without any care of their community. Metaphorically, when we decided to give up the tradition of bowling clubs for “bowling alone,” a small tear starts in the fabric of community life.
Luckily, this isn’t the case in Water Valley where civic clubs abound. Now, there’s one more making a resurgence and oddly enough (no pun intended), we are bucking a national trend.
The new Odd Fellows members are in learning mode and intend to do good things in our community to make it better, all in the spirit of “Friendship, Love and Truth” while helping knit us together as a community of all people who call this little valley home.
