Sarah Jessie Davis Stakely

Sarah Jessie Davis Stakely served as president of WMU from 1899 to 1903. She also served as president of the District of Columbia WMU from 1896 to 1899, as president of Alabama WMU from 1912 to 1921, and she served on the WMU Executive Committee 1921-l929.

Mrs. Stakely became friends with Annie Armstrong, who used her home as a meeting place when she had business in Washington. She was the only WMU president to have a baby while in office. When the Cooperative Program was founded, her pastor husband's church in Montgomery, Alabama, was one of six churches in the entire Southern Baptist Convention that met the ideal of contributing more than 50 percent of their funds to the Cooperative Program.