Guytanna Maria Clarissa Yvonne Horton DeGraffenreidt was born November 22, 1941, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina to Rev. Rufus V. and Mrs. M. Mozelle Horton (both deceased). She was the second born of three girls and two boys, Minerva “Beanie” Horton.
At the age of 10, her family moved to Pittsboro when her father was assigned as pastor of Mitchell Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church where she sang in the White Wings Choir (and she never topped singing since). During her senior year in high school, she followed in the footsteps of Kermit DeGraffenreidt and drove his school bus route. After graduating from Horton High School in 1960, she attended North Carolina College (NCC) at Durham (later renamed North Carolina Central University) where she worked on the school paper and became very much involved in the Fight for Freedom Movement to end Jim Crow in Durham.
In August 1962, Guytanna and three other students (Jocelyn McKissick, Waldo Mead and Jon Schaeffer) protested racial segregation at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant in Durham, N.C. The students were arrested and, for their refusal to pay a trespass fine for sitting at the counter of Howard Johnson’s, the four protestors served a 30-day jail term. The Freedom Rally organized on behalf of these students featured Roy Wilkins (Executive Secretary NAACP), James Farmer (National Director of CORE), and Rev. B.E. Cox (North Carolina Field Secretary of CORE) as the speakers. Also, while in college, she crossed the burning sands and became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.
In June of 1963, Guytanna married the now-Rev. Kermit DeGraffenreidt. In the same year, Kermit was assigned to be the pastor of Clinton AME Zion Church in Rockville, Maryland. and Guytanna served as the First Lady. Four months later, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Although she had moved, she continued her studies and graduated with her B.S. degree from NCC in 1965. In Rockville, she worked full time teaching math at Julius West Jr. High School and continued her social activism which included being a charter member of the Montgomery County Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Inc. (1970).
In 1965, Guytanna gave birth to their daughter, Keisha Clintnett. In 1973, Guytanna, Kermit, and Keisha visited Liberia and Ghana. The next year, the family became missionaries and moved to Monrovia, Liberia, where Guytanna taught math at the American Cooperative School until 1979. In 1979, Guytana and Keisha returned to the United States and moved to Pittsboro. Guytanna taught math in North Carolina until she moved to Mt. Vernon, N.Y., in 1982.
Guytanna continued to reach young minds by teaching math full time and volunteering as a literacy tutor in Mt. Vernon until her medical condition made her unable to work. In 1993 Long Island University conferred upon her the degree of Master of Science in Education. From 1987 to 1995, Guytanna held the position of Secretary, Bureau of Supplies, for the Women’s Home and Overseas Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
In addition to her husband, daughter and siblings, Guytanna now watches over her son-in-law: Anthony Peter Ashton, four grandchildren: Anthony Peter Ashton II; Kasey DeGraffenreidt Ashton; Kiara Christine Diane Ashton; and Alisha Patrice Ashton Mackell; adopted grandson: Kermit Obeng and two great grandchildren: Jay Mack and Aubree Mackell.
Rest in peace, Mommy.
