Anzora’s Story : Her Obituary

Anzora Adkins was born September 15, 1938 in Bessemer, Alabama to the late Clarence (Sr.) and Mamie Bell (Phillips) Adkins. She was the youngest child and only girl of three children. On August 20, 2026, she peacefully departed this life at the age of 87: 8 biblically representing new beginnings and 7 biblically representing completion. For her obedience and dedication to her life’s work the angels of the Lord met to grant her wings and ascend her into Heaven.

Christianity and education was the focal point of her upbringing. Her parents ensured all three of their children had relationships with Jesus Christ and college degrees. Anzora took this mandate seriously. She was an intellectual individual who had a great passion for education. Her early educational pathway began in Bessemer Alabama at Raimund Elementary in the Jefferson County School District where she completed grades 1st- 6th, then going to Brighton Middle School for grades 7th and 8th and on to Dunbar High for grades 9th – 12th where she graduated in the top 1% of her class, which in today’s time, she would have been considered the class valedictorian.

Although, she understood education was of great importance, she deeply believed her spirituality and walk with Jesus Christ was of the utmost importance. She always looked to the hills from which cometh her help, and acknowledged her help was coming from the Lord. Being raised by devout Christians: her father a church Deacon and her mother a Sunday School teacher and church organist, Anzora too, was an active member at the Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Bessemer, Alabama from childhood until she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1956. Upon her arrival to Cincinnati, she continued her Christian journey by joining Shiloh Baptist Church, and later joining her family’s church, Golden Leaf Baptist Church in 1964 under the late Rev. Clarence Adkins. She has been a very dedicated and dutiful member of the Golden Leaf Baptist Church until her passing. Her final act of church service was ushering aisle two on Easter Sunday 2026 as she has been an usher at Golden Leaf Baptist Church for 62 years. On the Senior Usher Board, she served in various capacities from president to corresponding secretary and also as an instructor. Anzora was an active member in the Sunday School Department as well as the Newcomer Club. She chaired many programs and events, her favorite being Women’s Day. Anzora served as a Secretary for the Temple Bible College and taught English.

As a mother of four children: Arnold, Reginald, ArNetta and Deidre, she placed great emphasis on faith, introducing all of her children to Jesus Christ and respecting each one’s spiritual walk. The motto she held close to her heart was to “Keep the Faith, Stay Focused and You Will Function Well”. She raised her children to value education, ensuring all of her children were college graduates. She prepared all of her children to be upstanding, productive and responsible citizens in society. Uniquely by name, so was Anzora’s life. She stood on God’s Promises that, “Her latter days would be greater than her former days”, so she trusted in God with all of her heart and leaned not to her own understanding. With God, Anzora distinctively had the ability to turn her trials unto triumphs.

Embracing her love for education, she began to seek higher ground by receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and Counselor Education from the University of Cincinnati. She spent her earlier days as a Social Worker for St. Francis. However, having a strong desire to teach, she decided to go back to college to Xavier University to obtain a Master’s Degree and teaching certification in Elementary Education. After obtaining her certification, she taught for the Cincinnati Public Schools for twenty-five years as a sixth grade Language Arts teacher at the Academy of World Languages. There she successfully lead the annual World Culture Festival and advised the Future Educators of America. She also prepared many student-teacher interns from the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. She retired from Cincinnati Public Schools in 2005. Anzora was a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and was delighted to be initiated into the A.K.A. sisterhood by her ninth grade English teacher Soror Sara Hale.

Beyond Anzora’s dedication to macro practice, she exuded a remarkable passion for educating the next generation of social workers. Through her expert teaching of social work to students in the field, she was a generous lender of her skills in supporting students to translate and adapt to the real-world demands and values of the social work profession. Under her supervision, one of her undergraduate student intern successfully prepared and obtained approval for a competitive grant proposal, which was a learning experience that is seldom achievable at the undergraduate level of study. Anzora also supervised interns from Xavier University and Union Institute & University, preparing them to be the best in the field. For her intense labor in the Social Work field she earned notable awards and was even recognized on the National level by receiving the National Association of Social Workers Award Ohio Chapter and Social Worker of the Year which was presented to her by Senator Cory Booker.

Anzora has demonstrated a life of commitment, admiration and unwavering support to the Evanston community where she had resided for close to sixty years. She spent over a decade being the President of the Evanston Community Council, always seeking out resources, funding, promoting revitalization, community progress, and educational enrichment by building partnerships with City Hall, Cincinnati Police Department, President of University of Xavier, Clergymen, Corporations and Local Businesses to support her efforts. Anzora was known as a steadfast advocate for neighborhood transformation, working hard to ensure that youth and families in Evanston had the tools and opportunities needed to thrive. She was instrumental in naming her community of Evanston, “The Educating Community” because she wanted it known that Evanston was the only community in the city of Cincinnati where one could receive an education from Early Childhood to earning a Ph.D. She went as far as having the city implant a marble signage bearing the name “Evanston; The Educating Community” and placing it in the busiest intersection of the Evanston Community; Dana and Montgomery Road. In that same intersection she lead a $3.5 million dollar project that included the building of a United Dairy Farmers at Dana Avenue and Montgomery Road, and helped developers see the potential for more development in an area often associated with crime.

Another one of her major milestones was on July 17, 2013, when the crime-ridden St. Leger apartments were demolished and was revitalization into what is now known as St. Ambrose. The new $6 million development consisted of 26 units, including 1-and 2-bedroom apartments and 3-bedroom townhomes. Under her leadership, one year later after the new development, District 2 Police reported a 35% reduction in overall crime. At that time, Captain Jeff Butler, District 2 Commander stated, “The partnerships we have formed in this past year with Evanston have significantly contributed to this reduction in crime. This is truly a model for community police relations.” Always wanting what was best for the Evanston Community, Anzora’s response was, “The community of Evanston is on the move for the well-being of our housing, business, education and spirituality. St. Ambrose is a positive part of this revitalization.”

Anzora led the Red Cross and TriHealth Rehabilitation Hospital project, which occupies over 60,000 square feet of leased space. These building are a part of Keystone Parke's campus at 2135 Dana Avenue near Interstate 71. Anzora stated, “We really started our revitalization efforts with the new office building, which ultimately attracted the Red Cross’ new headquarters, also developed by the Neyer Company once Red Cross outgrew its downtown location.” That initial investment in prime real estate adjacent to I-71 has been followed by several strategic housing and commercial developments by Model Group that straddle the thriving business corridors of the Evanston Community.

Anzora was instrumental in the revitalization of the Kings Record Studio. When the City of Cincinnati acquired the former King Records studio building, saving it from demolition, they worked closely with Anzora Adkins, the King Records Nonprofit Steering Committee, the Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation, and the Bootsy Collins Foundation to stabilize and revitalize the building. Once that project started developing, Anzora initiated the secondary street naming of Bootsy Collins Way, who grew up in Cincinnati, and lived in the Evanston community.

Being cognizant that a neighborhood should be absent of blight, Anzora received and lead a beautification grant with former Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman in which hundreds of the Evanston residents were granted $5,000 to enhance the external structure of their homes. Anzora’s goal was to showcase the beauty of the Evanston neighborhood. She furthered enhanced the community by working closely with Xavier University’s Art Department to place murals throughout Evanston and worked with Carl Linder to get funding for an Art Studio, in Evanston called the “The Flavor of Arts”.

As a decade long President of the Evanston Community Council, these are just a handful of projects lead and community efforts put forth. Anzora is well-regarded as the single most influential change agent in bringing together public services, private business, and government partnerships to transform the neighborhood that she called her home for close to sixty years. She would utilize any and every resource available as well as unavailable to build up her community. One local journalist quotes her saying, “I will be in touch with all the ones who can make a decision to help us” (WCPO, 2013). From the development of affordable family housing to the opening of the Evanston Employment Resource Center, Anzora’s unique style of diplomacy attracted substantial support and funding for the host of community transformation initiatives, including tangible improvements in housing, workforce development, and business ownership.

Anzora showed her love and respect for Evanston by asking, more so, politely demanding that the City provide Evanston with resources that it needed and deserved. Even City employees found it hard to say “no” to Anzora Adkins. She commanded a room and kept order as only a former teacher could at the Evanston Community Council meetings she led as president. She was not afraid to ask you to assist with something and more often than not, got people to do what she asked. Her leadership in Evanston is characterized by: Infrastructure and Renewal, Community Safety, Neighborhood Advocacy and working directly with residents to foster youth programs and improve overall community well-being. For these reason, Evanston made great progress under her committed leadership.

Anzora has received countless awards, honors, celebrations, and has been featured countless times on television for news worthy interviews and in newspaper articles for all her hard work as a change agent for the Evanston Community, a community that dubbed her as “The Mayor of Evanston”. Anzora received the Outstanding Citizen Leadership Award from the Cincinnati Recreation Commission. Former Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann presented her with the Neighborhood Summit Award for Collaboration of the Year for the REACH Evanston Program an award that recognizes a successful project in a community from the collaboration of neighborhood leaders and organizations with other organizations inside and outside of the community.

Anzora has received six city Proclamations and three Proclamations from the State of Ohio. She also received “The Key to the City” from Former Mayor John Cranley in 2018 along with the honor of being Chief of Police for a Day from former Police Chief Eliot Isaacs. Her greatest accomplishment is that her legacy will live on forever for her profound impact in the Evanston Community when the Cincinnati City Council officially honored her on June 10, 2026 by designating a secondary naming of the street she lived on for close to sixty years in the Evanston community, in her name sake; “Anzora Adkins Way”. As a change agent in the Evanston Community, she worked tirelessly until she stepped down as the Evanston Community Council President at the age of eighty. There is indeed only one “Anzora”. Anzora Adkins is and will always be the G.O.A.T; The Greatest achiever, change agent, fearless advocate, intellectual nurturer, and loyal leader. She will be missed for her life’s accomplishments, advocacy, leadership, tremendous courage and lifelong contributions of community service. She will forever be known as the leader who yielded results the “Anzora Adkins Way”!

Anzora was the last surviving sibling. Her brothers who preceded her in death are; Clarence Jr. and Norman (and her sister-in-law Thelma). Along with her parents Clarence Sr. and Mamie Bell, she will unite with her son, Reginald Myron. She leaves to cherish her memories, her son, Arnold (daughter-in-law Cheryl) of Los Angeles, California, daughter ArNetta of Columbia, South Carolina and daughter Deidre (son-in-law Eric) of Cincinnati, Ohio. Also treasuring those memories are her three grandchildren; Gregory Adkins (Crystal) and Tiaga Adkins both from California, and Kirsten Simpson. She has five great grandchildren, Brenden Adkins, Aiden Adkins, Alozie Adkins, Akanye Adkins and Liana Adkins. A very special brother and sister-in-law (cousins) William Joe and Patricia Adkins, a niece (cousin) Gearldine St. Clair, nephew (cousin) Keith Adkins and her God Children The Thomas’: Julia, Johnjohn (Lisa), Freddie, (Monica preceded her in death) and Vincent Reaves. Her God Grandson Antonio Sanders. A supportive nephew and niece (Matthew Adkins and Jenaye Clark) and a host of other nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and her former students will also cherish her memory. Her presence and memories will be equally missed by her 1st grade childhood friends, Augusta McGee and Fannie Turner (they were known as the three amigos), her Golden Leaf Baptist Church 

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from 10:00 am until 11:00 am, on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at the Golden Leaf Baptist, 5910 Argus Road, Cincinnati (45224). The funeral service will immediately follow the visitation, beginning at 11:00 am. Friends and family will gather to share memories, find solace in one another's company, and honor the legacy she leaves behind.

She will be laid to rest at Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45232.

We invite you to take a few moments to share fond memories and words of comfort and condolence with the Adkins family. Please click the "Tribute Wall" icon above and to the right, enter the information, and click "Save Post."

Walker Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for the Adkins family during this difficult time. Please call 513.251.6200 or visit www.HerbWalker.com for additional information.