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Portland’s Black Catholic service couple
Bill and Gladys McCoy used their power for society’s good
Gladys McCoy greets Archbishop William Levada at a 1991 Mass honoring the work of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Michael Wilhelm/Catholic Sentinel)
7/8/2021 4:53 PM
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Bill McCoy entered the Oregon Legislature in 1972 and would serve until his death in 1996. (Sentinel archives)
Gladys McCoy serves as a lector at Holy Cross Church in North Portland in 1992, a year before her death. (Sentinel archives)
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In 1996, when Bill and Gladys McCoy had died after fruitful careers in public service, a former Sentinel reporter wrote a reflection.
“It is hard to think of one McCoy without the other,” wrote Geri Ethen, who’d known the couple since her childhood. “These path-breakers set goals for themselves in the early ....

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