Teachers and Educators

Teachers and Educators. Liberty African American Legacy Memorial. , James A. Gay , (1882-1985) , Professor (Prof.) James A. Gay, centenarian and principal of Garrison School for 22 years, was born in Fayette, Georgia, the son of Felix and China Gay. His grandfather was the son of a white plantation owner who left money to his son, who then moved the family of nine siblings to a farm of 160 acres, seven miles east of Gainsville, Texas. Orphaned when he was young, he and his siblings were alone and “scattered like dandelions in the wind.”, He worked his way through college, attending Langston University in Oklahoma and completing his degree at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, a historically African American college. Prof. Gay excelled in Latin and Greek, an prior to accepting a job in Liberty at the Old Rock Church School for African American youth, taught those subjects at Western Bible College in Kansas City for one dollar a day and his board. He soon applied for a teaching position in Liberty where he met Ethyl, his wife of over 60 years., After teaching there for only one year, the school burned. A new one was built in 1911, and he suggested naming it Garrison after the journalist and abolitionist social reformer, William Lloyd Garrison. Under Prof. Gay’s administration, Garrison became renowned as one of the best schools for African American students in Missouri. He also tutored William Jewel students in Latin, Greek, trigonometry and calculus, as well as taught night school to local African American adults., As the Great Depression deepened, Prof. Gay left Garrison to serve as Educational Advisory for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from 1933 through 1942, one of very few African Americans to hold an administrative position in the CCC. He was a devout member of the Baptist Church, and in the community, he was an early member of the Fellowship of the Concerned. Prof. Gay worked with local boy scouts where he was made a member of the tribe of Mic-O-Say by (Chief) H. Roe Bartle., Marion Lee Pearley , (1896-1988) , Marion Lee Pearley, Garrison School educator for 30 years, was the second of 12 children born to Henry Clay and Maggie Bright Pearley. She was a graduate of Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, Missouri and a member of the American Association of University Women where she was the first African American to be admitted to the Liberty Branch. Remembered by her students as a strict disciplinarian dedicated to scholastic achievement, she was also the co-organizer of annual fashion revues and school plays each spring., During the 1920s – 1940s, her family homesteaded in the New Liberia subdivision on the south end of Liberty was also home to her sister, Miss Aleen Pearley, also a Garrison School teacher, and their brother, Dr. Seymore Pearley, the first African American doctor to establish a dental practice in both Liberty and Independence. The Pearleys owned and ice-cream parlor and tennis court, as well as provided carnivals, fairs and other recreational activities on their property for African American youth during the Great Depression and world war two eras., Marion was a community leader who organized the first girl scout troop for African Americans in the Liberty area. She provided Garrison students with opportunities to experience culture and a world beyond the microcosm of Liberty during the years of segregation, taking them to the George Washington Carver Memorial in Diamond, Missouri, Silver dollar City and to Mark Twain’s home in Hannibal, Missouri. Marion was a deaconess, Sunday school teacher and superintendent for the African American Sunday school for many years at St. Luke A.M.E. Church and started the “Cradle Roll” for pre-kindergarten youth. She also won first prize in Liberty for her famous front yard Nativity Scene. Marion Lee Pearley was a phenomenal educator and woman., Clarence E. Gantt , (1903-1968) , Among the many distinguished Garrison School educators was Clarence E. Gantt, mathematics teacher and coach who received his B.A. degree from Lincoln University in Jefferson City. Before becoming principal of Garrison in 1933, Clarence was a classroom instructor and head football coach of the Garrison “Wonder Team” that won the Missouri State Football Championship in 1932 with a total of 169 points in its favor in eight games., Under his leadership and administration as principal, a new gymnasium was built in 1938 for Garrison students. Until this time, African American students had neither assembly room facilities, a gymnasium nor current textbooks. Clarence challenged the inequalities in the education of African American students at Garrison, and through his efforts, the white community responded by passing a favorable school bond issue on September 27th, 1938 to add a new addition to the school., After the desegregation of the Liberty school District in 1954, and due to systemic racism, Clarence, a highly qualified educator, was offered a job as a study hall teacher by the district. He later taught physical education at Odd Fellows School in Liberty and an evening adult education course at Central High School in Kansas City. In addition, he did volunteer work for the Clay County Human Resources Development Corporation and served as supervisory of both Ruth Moore Park and Liberty City Park., Clarence was a member of St. Luke A.M.E. Church and an active member of the Liberty Prince Hall Masonic Lodge #37. He died in 1968, a few days before his 65th birthday while Liberty students were in the process of planning to present him with a plaque in honor of being an excellent coach and educator for 40 years., Zelma Mabery Williams , (1923-1991) , Zelma Mabery Williams, a Liberty Head Start teacher and Crystal Lane Nursing Center assistant, was the oldest daughter of George and Viola Kidd Mabery. Her father was one of nine Clay County African American world war one veterans in the 805th Pioneer Infantry Regiment that served in Brest, France. Zelma attended Garrison School and upon graduation married world war two veteran Walter Williams. During the mid-1940s she began working part-time as a housekeeper, joining the five million women entering the workforce outside the home to supplement their family income. By the 1960s, over 65 million American women were working outside the home, and Zelma was among them, raising four children in a single-parent household., With a love for children and a passion for teaching, Zelma’s opportunity to do both came through President Johnson’s federally funded Heat Start Program. Her ten-year career, working alongside head teacher Judy Minor, was working with preschoolers. Zelma later applied for a job as a nursing assistant at Crystal Lane Nursing Center where she worked for 25 years until her retirement., As a faithful member of First Baptist Church, she served in the Pride of Zion Club, the Willa Herring Mission Auxiliary and in the Culinary Ministry. There were no community centers nor event spaces for African American women in the historic Garrison District for social life during the segregated Jim Crow era, so Zelma and her friends organized Club 14, a women’s social group that held monthly gatherings and parties in each other’s homes. Zelma was an industrious worker and loving mother whose legacy lives on through her children. Thomas Henry Redmond, Mary Ellen Redmond, Patricia Mae Redmond Lewis and William Walter Williams, Jr. (deceased).