Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry, who headed AME churches in Southern California and became the first woman to serve as presiding elder in the denomination’s 5th Episcopal District, passed away on May 3 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Her homegoing celebration will be held on Tuesday, May 19, at 11 a.m., at St. Phillip AME Church in Atlanta. Bishop Samuel L. Green, Sr. will be the eulogist and the Rev. Dr. Anton Elwood is the host pastor.
A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Bishop Guidry was born on August 25, 1937. She attended J.P. Campbell College in Jackson, earning an Associate of Arts degree in Business and Secretarial Science.
She began her professional career working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where she served as the women’s voter registration chair. In 1964, she was hired by Security Pacific Bank in California, where she worked for twelve years.
In 1977, Bishop Guidry followed her call to ministry and enrolled in the Los Angeles Bible School. That same year, she was ordained as an Itinerant Elder. She went on to serve as pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Indio, California, where she oversaw significant renovations to both the church and the parsonage and established a day care center. In 1983, she was appointed to Cain Memorial AME Church in Bakersfield, California, where she served faithfully for five years. Her first husband, father of her children and love of her life, Cary B. Tyler, passed away in 1988.
In 1989, Bishop Guidry made history by becoming the first woman appointed to lead a major metropolitan church – Walker Temple AME Church in Los Angeles, a congregation of 600 members. In 1994, she again broke barriers, becoming the first woman appointed presiding elder in the Fifth Episcopal District, overseeing 19 churches in the Los Angeles area. Although her bids for election to the bishopric in 1996 and 2000 were not successful, her leadership and visibility helped pave the way for women in the denomination.
In July 2000, Bishop Vashti McKenzie became the first woman elected bishop in the AME Church. Four years later, in July 2004, Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry became the second woman to be elected bishop. That same year, she earned her Master of Theology degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Following her election, she was appointed presiding prelate of the 16th Episcopal District of the AME Church, which included Suriname, Guyana, the Windward Islands, the Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, and London, England. Shortly after her appointment, Hurricane Ivan caused widespread devastation—particularly in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic—making her early tenure especially demanding.
In 2008, at the 48th Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the AME Church, she was appointed bishop of the 8th Episcopal District, covering the U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi. She served in this role until her retirement in 2012.
Beyond her ecclesiastical duties, Bishop Guidry was deeply involved in charitable and nonprofit work. She served as secretary on the board of the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Indio, president of the Riverside County Board of Mental Health, and treasurer of the national board of One Church One Child. She was also a proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
Bishop Guidry was the widow of Supervisor Donovan Guidry, a retired United States Army officer, who passed away in June 2007 after a long illness.
She leaves to cherish her memory her five sons: Rev. Dr. Makungu Akinyela (Chinganji), Mr. Cary Tyler (Sharon), Mr. Michael Tyler (Leslie), Rev. Dr. Timothy E. Tyler (Dwinita), and Mr. Thomas Tyler; one daughter, Ms. Alpha Tyler; 12 grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren. She is also survived by a devoted friend and adopted daughter, Reverend Wilhelmenia Deloris Devone-Harvey, who faithfully accompanied her in ministry and in life.
