ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996                 TAG: 9605200065
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-2  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: NEWS OBIT 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER 

ADVOCATE FOR POOR DIES AT 81

ONCE A WELFARE RECIPIENT herself, Rachel Akers worked most of her life to help other Roanokers struggling with poverty.

Rachel Akers was on welfare and living in the Lansdowne public housing development in Roanoke when the national anti-poverty movement peaked in the 1960s.

She'd gone on welfare after her husband left her. Three of her eight children were already grown, but she raised five more with the help of public assistance.

Akers, who died Thursday at 81, parlayed her experiences into helping others who were snarled in the welfare system. She was appointed to the Roanoke Department of Social Services' first client advisory committee, a federally mandated group that grew out of former President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty.

Akers, a Roanoke native, served on the committee for nearly 10 years, several of them as the committee's chairwoman. Her interest in helping welfare clients continued even after she found a job in 1974 as a social-service aide with the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Akers helped people apply for food stamps and Medicaid. She cleared up problems people had in obtaining free school lunches or free books for their children. She helped new public housing residents settle into their homes.

"If someone needed help, she'd get on the phone and call and call until she got the person she was looking for," said Maybelle Hunter, a clerical aide at the housing authority who worked closely with Akers. "She went out of her way every day."

Akers retired in 1983.

In 1984, she received a meritorious service award for 16 years of volunteer work on behalf of the Roanoke Department of Social Services. Corinne Gott, the department's superintendent, had nominated her.

"She tried to help improve conditions and resources in a cooperative, conciliatory way," Gott said. "She spoke for the needs of clients, as a client, then as a former client. She did make a contribution in her time."

After receiving the award, Akers remarked in a newspaper interview that the welfare system had always treated her fairly and that what she was entitled to, she'd been given.

"You know, some people expect too much," she said.

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