At home, sorrow over Bryant's conviction

Yvette Loper has put her hands on the picture of her longtime state senator in the newspaper every morning the last few weeks and offered these words: "God, let good be done."

Loper was among the neighbors, friends and distant family members in Wayne Bryant's hometown of Lawnside who have prayed that the former senator would be absolved of a crime that they consider a small mistake in a long life of good deeds.

Yesterday, jurors decided otherwise. They convicted him of 12 counts of bribery and pension fraud.

In close-knit Lawnside, the first self-governing African American community north of the Mason-Dixon Line and a stop on the Underground Railroad, the Bryant name runs deep. So when supporters heard yesterday that the politician was headed to prison, their chins sank to their chests.

"I've always just known him as a wonderful servant for humanity," said Yvonne Foster, who has owned Lawnside's Mademoiselle Beauty Salon with her twin sister, Yvette Loper, for 37 years.

Foster cited Bryant's work on welfare reform, which won him national acclaim. "That was good for the taxpayers, good for the children, good for the parents," she said.

Bryant also knew how to bring home the money, others said.

"When they needed capital equipment, air-conditioning for the gymnasium, all he wanted to know was, 'How much is it going to cost?' " said Vincent Rochester, 72, a former Lawnside school board president. "And he'd work it out."

As for the jurors, Rochester said: "Those are people who don't know about the man.

"Naturally he did one thing he shouldn't have done, but he did right by Lawnside, that's all I can say."

The Bryant name is omnipresent in the Camden County town. Wayne Bryant's brother, Mark, is the mayor. Around the block is the Wayne R. Bryant Community Center. Even the map has Bryant markings: I.R. Bryant Way, named after his father, a former school board president, and Spicer Place, named for his wife, Cheryl Spicer.

For those in Bryant's corner, skepticism abounds about why the senator was investigated in the first place.

"You don't know what's behind this," Foster said. "He probably ruffled somebody's feathers and they said, 'Hey, I'll get you.' "

In Camden City, however, where Bryant focused much of his work and legislation, the news of Bryant's conviction brought considerably less sorrow.