The year was 1929, the same year that the stock market crashed and America, and the world was thrust into a global economic depression.  In November of that year a pair of twins, Cleve and Cleo were born to Rufus and Mary Lee Lewter in the sleepy town of Sebring, FL.

The younger of the two, Cleo, excelled as a football star and was granted an athletic scholarship to Morris Brown College in Atlanta, GA.  In the spring of 1954, the now Rev. Andy C. Lewter relocated to Brooklyn, New York to start a new life and a new family.  After serving five year teaching in the New York City Public School system, Rev. Lewter was called to the Hollywood Baptist Church in 1959 and by 1963 he was the proud pastor of a growing congregation and family of wife and six children.

For almost 50 years Pastor Lewter, with Mother Lewter by his side led the Hollywood Baptist Church through a series of seasons that saw Long grow from a semi-rural extension of New York City to its leading suburban community.  In the 1980's Pastor Lewter led the community in ridding its crime and crack ridden neighborhood of the negative elements that were taking the lives of so many on Long Island.

In addition to his pastoral duties, Pastor Lewter served as the first chaplain of color at the Pilgrim State Hospital in Brentwood and helped to organize the Ministerial Alliance of North Amityville and Vicinity.  

Pastor Lewter retired from the pulpit of Hollywood Baptist Church in 2006 and from Pilgrim State Hospital in 2017.  He quietly fell asleep on Sunday, May 19, 2019 and rests peacefully, alongside his wife of over 50 years, at the Washington Memorial Park in Mt. Sinai, NY.