Ecru Second Baptist Church

The Ecru Second Baptist Church has been around for close to one hundred years. This church is where M.B. Mayfield attended for most of his life. Mayfield painted a baptismal painting that is hung over the church’s baptistery. Ecru Second Baptist also currently has an active congregation, so if you are looking for a church, feel free to check this one out!

M.B. Mayfield had a close relationship with his Christianity and his church all throughout his life. In his autobiography, he mentions that since he was a child, he had been going to churches and their revival events. As a child, Mayfield fondly recalled that his favorite thing regarding revival services was “going to the farthest church at night because the wagon ride was so much fun”. His home church was the Ecru Second Baptist Church, and he attended this church for most of his life. The exact date that the church was established could not be found, but since Mayfield was born in 1923, it is estimated that the church is almost a hundred years old now! Mayfield also wrote a history of the church, but this unfortunately could also not be located because the church owns the only handwritten copies of the history. The building of the church is different now, as the larger building is a new addition that Mayfield would not have attended service in.

Later in his life, though, Mayfield transferred to the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in New Albany, MS. Although this entry is focused on the Ecru Second Baptist Church, a history of Mayfield’s religious life is not complete without mentioning his time at the Catholic Church. At this church, Mayfield made many good friendships and relationships, especially with Father Will Steinbacher, who was over the church at that time. Mayfield saw him as a father figure, even though he was younger than himself. Also while attending the Catholic Church, Mayfield served as a cross bearer, a job that he greatly enjoyed according to his autobiography. Photographs of the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church are attached to this entry, so you do not have to drive to New Albany to see it.

Finally, here is Mayfield’s favorite scripture verse, as declared in his autobiography, Isaiah 40:30-31, “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” 

Entry by Ellie Davis

Mayfield, M.B.. The Baby who Crawled Backwards: An Autobiography, (p. 36,40, 69-71. Memphis, Tennessee. Langford and Associates, 2003.

Foster, Brian., M.B. Mayfield Collection: Oral History Interviews, transcript of an oral history conducted 2021 by Dr. Brian Foster, M.B. Mayfield Collection Project, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi, 2021, 20 pp.

New International Version. BibleGateway, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2040%3A30-31&version=NIV. Accessed 27 April 2022.