By Caslee Sims

News Intern

AHOSKIE – It is a fact that serving your country, your state, and your community can place you among the stars. It’s not often that one stands in the same category as Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King, Michael Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey to name a few.

Peggy Davis Mizelle, a Windsor native, recently received the “Order of the Long Leaf Pine”, one of the most prestigious awards presented by the Governor of North Carolina. Usually this award is bestowed upon one who has contributed over 30 years of service to the state of North Carolina, and the aforementioned prominent people, are former award winners.

Mizelle wasted no time in beginning her career, she went straight from high school to working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C. in June of 1969 until May of 1971. She then was in the military and served in Alexandria, VA from November 1971 until October 1973. Before coming back to her home state, North Carolina, she worked for the Defense Contract Administrative Services in Reading, PA from May 1974 until October of 1980.

Upon returning to North Carolina, Mizelle wanted to continue to help people. She definitely wanted a way that she could serve her state and her community. She did so through serving her native Roanoke-Chowan area with their Social Security and disability needs. She was a claims development clerk, and later a service representative at the Social Security Administration in Ahoskie from September of 1981 up until her retirement last year in June.

She says that helping people was most rewarding for her during her time at the Social Security Administration. She enjoyed receiving retirement and disability claims because it gave her a chance to help people finally achieve what they had longed for and needed to continue to live their lives the way they saw fit.

What kept her going other than her obvious love for impacting lives in a positive manner was her family she says. Mizelle has two sons, Dean, and Jessie, two grandchildren, Sawyer and Summer, and her husband of 30 years, Jim L. Mizelle.

Her brother, who worked for the transportation department in Raleigh, sent her name to the Governor of North Carolina and it left her in a world of shock she says.

Many citizens of the area and North Carolina Senator Clark Jenkins also recommended Mizelle for this prestigious award.