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Dear Editor,
I really enjoyed the article about Miss Newman by Jeff Reeves.
I first met her when I was six years old, my first week in first grade at College Street School in Hapeville. I think the high school must have been in the same school at the time because I knew that she was a high school teacher. She was sitting on the steps to the school and she was entertaining us with her stories.
Then, when I attended Hapeville High School, she was my home room teacher when I was a senior. She was also my civics teacher. After high school I attended a business college in Atlanta and would run into her sometimes. She was always friendly and ready to talk to you.
When I moved to Henry County in 1973, I ran into her at a grocery store in McDonough and told her my name and asked if she remembered me. She said yes and I finally got to tell her what a good teacher she was. She commented that she would not have lasted long in the schools of that time because of her discipline. If a high school student really misbehaved she would get a long pencil and some way she would flip it on top of their hand. I don’t think she ever had to discipline the same student twice.
Our 1946 class dedicated our year book to her and her picture is in the front of the book. She was still a beautiful lady.
At her funeral in McDonough, I think Smitty Phillips and I were the only former pupils there.
Jim Stanton wrote a paper about her for the Cemetery Tour in McDonough and let me borrow it to read at one of Hapeville High School’s reunions. Everyone who had her as a teacher will never forget her.
Bobbie Wingo, Locust Grove
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