Major Takeaways

• Healing is not a single moment but a lifelong process that evolves with every stage of life.

• Faith can transform grief and betrayal into wisdom, strength, and renewed purpose.

• Women over fifty are often entering their most powerful season of self awareness, healing, and leadership.

A Jackson Mississippi faith leader shares how grief, betrayal, and decades of silence shaped a powerful journey toward healing and purpose after fifty.

Women’s History Month Spotlight | Women Over 50 Series

Focus Area: Reinvention At 50+

Hometown: Jackson, MS
Dana Singleton
FOCUS AREA: Healing After Decades of Silence
Faith Leader. Healing Advocate. Woman of Resilient Grace.
Some women carry titles that reflect their accomplishments.
Others carry stories that reveal their endurance.

Dana Singleton carries both. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Dana’s life reflects a journey of
service, leadership, motherhood, faith, and personal healing. She is the proud mother of four
daughters, whom she affectionately calls her “heartbeats,” and she is Nana to six grandchildren,
lovingly known as her “grand-heartbeats,” who she considers among her most precious treasures.
Family, for Dana, is not simply an identity, it is a legacy of love that continues to expand through
generations. She holds a historic place within her church community. On March 6, 1997, she
became the first female licensed minister at Black’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in
Jackson, Mississippi, under the leadership of Pastor John McNeal. Just over a year later, on
March 29, 1998, she again broke ground when she became the first female ordained minister in
her home church.
Her ministry path continued to expand as she was:
Inducted as a Life Member of the Women’s Home & Overseas Missionary Society of the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on November 5, 1999

Appointed Conference Evangelist for the South Mississippi AME Zion Conference
(2001–2003)
Ordained to the Office of Elder in the AME Zion Church on February 1, 2003 under the
leadership of Bishop Nathaniel Jarrett and the late Pastor John C. Evans Jr.
Served as Conference Evangelist for the Arizona AME Zion Conference (2005–2006)
under the late Bishop Roy A. Holmes
Throughout her ministry, Dana has remained committed to living as a virtuous woman , one who
is yielded to God in every area of her life.For this Women Over 50+ series, Dana reflects deeply
on a theme that has shaped her life: healing after decades of silence. Healing, she says, is often
misunderstood. It is a word people use easily, but rarely fully understand.
“Healing is a personal journey toward one’s wholeness.”

In her more than fifty years of life, Dana has come to realize that healing is not a single moment
but a process that changes in each phase of life. Because she herself was different in each phase.
Two experiences shaped that understanding more than any others: trauma and betrayal. Dana’s
life changed dramatically when she was only 13 years old. Her mother died suddenly at the age
of 34. The loss brought a grief that was almost impossible for a child to fully comprehend. But
beyond grief, it also brought the loss of things most teenagers still depend upon safety, guidance,
identity, and childhood itself. She grew up quickly. She carried responsibilities she believed no
one else could carry. And for years she believed she was healing, because she was functioning.
But what she later realized was something many people experience. She wasn’t healing. She was
surviving. Holidays, birthdays, and special occasions were often filled with private tears and
public smiles. She wore strength like armor because she did not know how to express the depth
of her pain. For decades, she silently carried a fear that she might also die at age 34, the same age
her mother was when she passed. Today, however, Dana’s relationship with that grief has
transformed. She can speak about her mother and smile. She remembers the good moments and
allows both grief and gratitude to coexist.

And most importantly, she found healing through a deeper relationship with God, allowing His
love to reach places in her heart that had been silent for years. But as we know along this journey
of life we can and will experience hurt and disappoint me more than once and Dana’s life
journey is no different. While on this journey, she has experienced the sting of betrayal.
As a young adult, she endured repeated betrayals from people she believed loved her. The
deepest wounds came through infidelity in her marriage, including devastating betrayals
involving her best friend and a close cousin. Those experiences shattered her trust and deeply
wounded her sense of self-worth. She questioned herself as any woman would at some point if
even for a brief second, minute or hour. She wondered if something was wrong with her.Her
confidence and identity as a woman were shaken.
But through spiritual growth and a deeper understanding of her identity in Christ, Dana
discovered something powerful. She learned who she truly was. She realized she had been
settling for far less than she deserved. And she came to understand a guiding truth she now carries into every relationship: “If a relationship does not reflect the character of Christ, then it
is not for me.”

She shared with me.
That realization became a turning point in reclaiming her voice, her dignity, and her peace.
Today, Dana Singleton continues to walk a path of faith, leadership, and healing. Her story is not
simply about survival. It is about transformation. It is about a woman who has faced grief,
betrayal, and decades of silent pain, and yet chose to pursue wholeness rather than bitterness.
She has turned her experiences into wisdom for others, particularly women who are learning
that healing is not about pretending the pain never existed. It is about allowing God to restore
what life once broke. Dana Singleton represents the many women over fifty who are still
discovering new levels of healing, purpose, and peace, women who understand that it is never
too late to become whole.
And in her life, that healing continues to unfold with grace.