{"id":43989,"date":"2023-05-31T11:20:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T15:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridabaptist.wpengine.com\/?p=43989"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:16:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:16:41","slug":"linda-demott-receives-2023-baptist-heritage-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/linda-demott-receives-2023-baptist-heritage-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Linda Demott receives 2023 Baptist Heritage Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTICELLO\u2013Linda Gramling (Mrs. Herbert) Demott\u00a0<\/strong>of the community of Elizabeth in Jefferson County, Florida, was presented the 2023 Baptist Heritage Award for \u201cher visionary and yeoman efforts to preserve, record and publish the history of the Elizabeth Baptist Church<\/a>, Monticello, Florida,\u201d according to the Florida Baptist Historical Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The presentation of the award was made by Donald S. Hepburn, managing director of the Society, on Sunday, May 21, at Elizabeth Baptist Church, on the occasion of the congregation\u2019s 192-year anniversary.<\/p>\n

Demott, age 84, is a lifelong member of Elizabeth Baptist Church and has worked diligently since the early 1990s to collect, organize and develop material for a history book on the church that was established in 1831.\u00a0She made it a goal to write and publish a church history book, the first narrative of its type for the congregation.\u00a0Publication of the book is set to occur in June.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In 2022 a special project Demott undertook was the creation of a bronze plaque containing a replica of the church\u2019s original constitution handwritten in 19th<\/sup>-century English alongside a contemporary language translation. She single-handedly raised the necessary funds to have the bronze display produced by a third-party vendor.\u00a0The plaque was dedicated by church members during the May 21 morning worship service.<\/p>\n

As the Elizabeth Baptist Church-designated historian since the 1950s, Demott has prepared annual church anniversary observance materials, including the development of skits to \u201cbring to life\u201d the church\u2019s historical leaders and events.\u00a0Additionally, to promote the church\u2019s history and to educate current members, she enlisted other volunteers to establish a designated history display of early information and memorabilia about Elizabeth Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

Since 1955, Demott also has served as the church\u2019s volunteer music leader and pianist.\u00a0She also served for many years as associational music director for Middle Florida Baptist Association<\/a>.\u00a0Additionally, for many years she was enlisted by the then-Church Music Department of the Florida Baptist Convention<\/a> to serve as a leader of specialty conferences for small church music leaders. For 25 years Demott, a wife and mother of four children, taught piano at Aucilla Christian Academy. She pursued formal academic training in music at North Florida Junior College and Florida State University\u2019s School of Music.<\/p>\n

According to Hepburn, the Baptist Heritage Award \u201cseeks to recognize and honor those Florida Baptists who have exhibited rare and unusual dedication to the cause of Florida Southern Baptist history.\u201d\u00a0 This includes having made a significant impact through such tasks as researching and writing Baptist history, teaching Baptist history, preserving Baptist history, and\/or promoting the importance of Florida Southern Baptist history.<\/p>\n

Since 1997, 26 individuals have received the Baptist Heritage Award from the Florida Baptist Historical Society.\u00a0These persons represent a broad range of Florida Baptists including pastors, denominational workers, college and seminary professors, and laypersons, who all share an interest and commitment to preserving, researching and publishing about Florida Baptist history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Gramling (Mrs. Herbert) Demott\u00a0of the community of Elizabeth in Jefferson County, Florida, was presented the 2023 Baptist Heritage Award for \u201cher visionary and yeoman efforts to preserve, record and publish the history of the Elizabeth Baptist Church, Monticello, Florida,\u201d according to the Florida Baptist Historical Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":50336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[284,285,287],"class_list":["post-43989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida-features","tag-elizabeth-baptist-church","tag-florida-baptist-historical-society","tag-linda-gramling-demott"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69129,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43989\/revisions\/69129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}