Since she was just a little girl, La Verne Ford Wimberly has enjoyed spending every Saturday evening laying out what she was going to wear to church the next day. She’s 82 years old now, but she still practices that very same ritual. And the great thing is that even during the midst of a global pandemic, she still gets dressed up every Sunday morning, even for virtual church service. When the lockdowns started, La Verne’s church services at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were moved to online Zoom services. This was to protect people from catching the virus.
Although some people may show up for Zoom church wearing a cute top and their pajamas underneath, not La Verne. She refused to compromise on her personal standards, and it shows. You can see how important a part of her life it is to look her best when she shows up to worship. La Verne says she thought to herself, “Oh my goodness, I can’t sit here looking slouchy in my robe.” She added that she didn’t want to sit around feeling sorry for herself all alone, so she decided that she was going to just dress up even though she wasn’t leaving the house, and why not? After all, if you look good, you feel great.
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La Verne says she has always loved fashion and was inspired as a child by a flamboyant teacher. She was so intrigued by the teacher that she herself decided to go into education. She eventually earned a doctorate degree and became a school principal. Her sharp-dressing certainly caught the attention of her students. She recalls that students would come up to her and tell her how pretty she looked, and before long, she had enough clothes that she could keep surprising the kiddos with her outfits.
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These days, she says she owns at least 50 hats and has an elaborate color-coding system that she uses to make sure she never repeats an outfit. In the church, she’s known as “The Doctor” and she’s a beacon of light for her fellow parishioners. Here’s a video about La Verne’s outfits.