Remembering Our Teachers

Norma Dunaway Juhan … Spanish Teacher

*** 11/20/08

Mary Cagle Hopper, AHS Class of 1959

Many thanks to Jane (Albriton) for forwarding this (article below) to me. For what it is worth, here is my memory and how Mrs. Juhan led me into the first phase of my career. Now years later and living in a state that has a growing Hispanic population and having spent a major part of my travels in Latin America, I would like for her family to know once more how her legacy lives on by those of us who learned to love both the Spanish language and its myriad cultures. Mrs. Juhan shaped my life in ways she never knew, since I went on to get a PhD in Romance Languages with a specialty in Mexican Literature from the U of Missouri-Columbia. Teaching college Spanish language and literature brought me to Charlotte 40+ years ago. In truth, I had really meant to take Latin but was lured into Mrs. Juhan's class by a huge standing fan on one of those fall days that masquerade as summer in South Ga. I was happy to learn she had a long life filled with people who loved her and a host of us who will still remember her for shaping us. *** 11/19/08

“JIMMIE” - submitted by Jake Clancy ('52)

Mrs. Norma Dunaway Juhan (“Jimmie” to family) passed away on Sunday, 16 November, 2008 shortly after celebrating her 98^th birthday on the 28^th of October. Many of you will remembers Mrs. Juhan as our Spanish and geometry teacher at AHS during the 1940’s and 1950’s. For the last years of her life, Mrs. Juhan had resided at Morningside in Albany (1721 Beattie Road) where she enjoyed the loving care of the compassionate people who make up the staff there. A number of people visited and showed their love for her over the years while she was at Morningside, including her grand-daughter Norma Hershey, Bob and Sue Fletcher, who were members of her church, and former students such as Nancy Reimer and others. As an aside, Mrs. Helen Long (I believe she taught typing or something like that?) is 96 and resides at Morningside. Mrs. Juhan will be put to rest at a later date in Adel, Georgia, where she spent many of her early years.

Mrs. Juhan was born in Americus on 28 October, 1910. She graduated from George State College for Women at Milledgeville where she studies English and journalism. Later she attended summer school sessions in Athens at the University of Georgia. In her early career before coming to Albany, Mrs. Juhan

taught at Sparks/Adel High School in Cook County, where she was in charge of the school newspaper called “The Sparkler,” and at Griffin High School, in Griffin, where she worked as faculty advisor to the school newspaper and was instrumental in raising money, through advertisements, to support it.

Although Mrs. Juhan had no children of her own, she had two step-children through her marriage to Stephen A. Juhan (21 December, 1938) who pre-deceased her by many years. Her two step-children, Steve and Bette Juhan Deener, are both deceased (Steve died in Albany in 1997). Her grand-daughter, Norma Hershey, lives in Maryland. A niece, Willa Olsen, lives in Malibu, California and grand-son Ed Deener lives in Geneseo, Illinois.

A number of former students and friends of Mrs. Juhan have warm memories of her:

Ralph Calhoun (’47):

I have eaten many meals at the Juhan home while I was in high school. She was a good cook. One of the funniest stories I know about them is cooking a duck. For years they had gotten a duck for Thanksgiving instead of a turkey. She put it in the oven to cook as she had in the past and soon a horrible odor filled the house. The duck had not been prepared properly and still had the intestines inside!

Frieda Howard Randles (’54):

I did not have Mrs. Juhan as a teacher, but I remember her well. We went to her house one time when she had some little Chihuahua puppies and they were so cute!

Carleen Newell Flowers (’48):

I was a student of Mrs. Juhan and also taught with her at AHS for a year. What a wonderful lady she was and is! I have had the privilege of visiting with her at Morningside for a number of years. When I was a junior in high school, Mrs. Juhan not only taught us Spanish but also geometry. She was always so kind and caring of her students.

Bill Seymour (’64):

I remember her as a teacher who loved what she did. She always had a smile on her face and a kind word even when we would slaughter the Spanish language. I was in Mrs. Juhan’s senior Spanish class the day President Kennedy was shot … and she cried.

Jake Clancy (’52):

Mrs. Juhan was special. She opened up the world to me. She made me want to see what was over the next hill. She gave me a love of languages and a strong desire to learn about and try to understand other cultures.

Teaching is a noble profession. In our early years we learn from our parents and friends and in our school years we learn from our teachers. Life itself is a continuing education. Education forms us in EVERY aspect of our life, knowledge, beliefs, morals, etc. Norma Dunaway Juhan was at the top of that

group of elite.

Many thanks to Bob Fletcher and Ralph Calhoun for providing much of the above information

In 1953 I came to Albany High School to teach English. Mr. McNabb was my bellowed principal. His wife Betty asked me to be a Girl Scout leader my first year here. Mr. Mc’s philosophy was that happy teachers make for a successful school. AHS was successful. Some of my contemporaries were Miss Thelma Plant Slappey, Mrs. Mabel Hogue, Mr. Billy Bragg, Miss Mary Hudson, and Mr. Graydon Pierce. We all have our memories of people who contributed to AHS.

During my years of teaching, I travelled during the summer months to Europe several times and in the U.S.A. plus doing graduate study at university of Georgia and Emory. After retirement I worked just time in a bookstore. It was a fun job. Later I was caregiver for my parents who had come to make their home with me. In 1994 I lost my home in the flood. Many friends helped me through this loss.

I reflect on my years at AHS as a wonderful time! I loved the school, my leaders there, and teaching. Today I am blessed to be in good health. I live at Magnolia Manor Retirement Center in Americus and lead an active life.

Joan Hand (1961) Murphy: Have a story about Miss Plant for you. Sitting here chuckling ... remembering a time I thought I was in big trouble with Miss Plant. I was a member of the FHA and we sometimes had meetings at the school at night. Mrs. Johnson, the Home Ec.
teacher, was the FHA advisor.

Smoking in the girls' bathrooms had become a big problem so Miss Plant had all the doors taken off the stalls and taken to one of the upstairs bathrooms. She always wore flat shoes with soft soles and no one ever heard her coming until she was seen.

One FHA night we girls got to the school early and were talking about how embarrassing it was to be in the stalls with no doors and got the bright idea to put them back on. We were so proud of ourselves when we were done.

I was sick the next day and when I got back to school, I was told that Miss Plant wanted to see me. I went to her office with fear in my heart but she wanted me to work on a project for her. We never heard a word about replacing the doors and she let them stay up!

Joan Hand (1961) Murphy: When I was in 10th grade there was a serious family crisis and I got no sleep the night it happened. Aunts had their hands full so sent my sister and I to school the next morning. I got into homeroom and collapsed into tears. The teacher sent me to the nurse that everyone called "Granny" and I told her what happened. She put me to bed and contacted Miss Plant. Miss Plant sat with me until I fell asleep, stroking my cheek and telling me everything was going to be alright. I slept until the end of the school day and when I awakened, Granny told me that Miss Plant had been out to check on me multiple times during the day.

There are many things I have forgotten about high school but I will never forget the lady with the big heart who cared so much about all of her students.

Hamilton Jordan (1962): Growing up in Albany in the 1950s, I would check our mailbox at 907 4^th Avenue regularly at the end of the month in hopes of finding the family copy of The Reader's Digest and turn quickly to my favorite section, "My Most Unforgettable Character,” written by different people about great, not-so-great and even ordinary people who had made a memorable difference in someone’s life.

One wrote about visiting Dr. Albert Schweitzer in his African clinic where he lived and dispensed medical treatment to the locals, another about a favorite teacher who had inspired the gift of learning or a coach or war hero who had changed their lives. I often wondered who would be my most unforgettable character in my life? Where would I encounter him? Maybe in New York? Or Washington? Or even on foreign soil?

Much later, I found my most unforgettable character – not half way around the world or even just across the country or state, but just down the street. And it wasn't a “him” but a “her” – Olivia "Livy" Beck, the mother of Jay Beck, my best friend.

Mrs. Beck was a bundle of wonderful contradictions. Raised a Southern lady, she was fast-talking with a high-pitched voice and a thick, syrupy drawl.

Although she was born in Atlanta, lived most of her life in South Georgia and was buried in Morgan, Georgia, she went to school in Washington, D.C., graduated from Parson’s and New York University where she studied art.

Although a “young Southern lady” through and through and raised in the segregated South, she taught school in New York, taking the subway every day to Harlem where she taught art to black children.

She married the love of her life, John Beck, in 1942 and moved to Albany, Georgia, where she taught school until she had her son, Jay. Livy and John were married for fifty years until he passed away in 1992.

Mrs. Beck often said – after he was grown – that Jay was the “perfect son.” Whenever she said this, Jay would counter that she had been “the perfect Mother.” They were both right.

Although she enjoyed a college education and was born to an Atlanta family of social prominence and wealth, there were no "little people" in Livy Beck’s world. Every person was a child of God and deserving of love, respect and understanding. Her heart poured out particularly to those who were poor and disadvantaged or had fallen on hard times. When someone was down on their luck, sick or had an illness or death in their family, Livy Beck was the first one there with a big hug, words of advice and reassurance, a meal for the family or a beautiful floral arrangement.

Because she loved life so much, I worried about Livy when her indomitable spirit collided with a very stubborn and aggressive cancer. But I was wrong.

Mrs. Beck quickly dismissed chemotherapy as an artificial way to try to extend her already wonderful life. She said she was "ready to die,” and she meant it. Her only regret was leaving Jay.

She spent her last days and weeks not fretting about herself but worried about the other people in her life, Jay, her extended family and friends, and her “best friend,” Ira Watkins, a wonderful old gentleman who had delivered her floral arrangements and helped around the house.

The last time I saw Mrs. Beck, she was in the hospital following a "bad spell" with her cancer. Livy complained that her "dear nurses are keeping me alive when they could be helping really sick people."

She was not one to leave anything to chance. She met with her dear friend, Tony Haefs, Pastor of her beloved Gillionville Baptist Church several weeks ago to make plans. Mrs. Beck made it plain that she wanted no “high-faluting,” expensive funeral but a short and dignified graveside service. With her time drawing near, the good preacher advised that it would probably be very, very cold outside for those attending her graveside ceremony. Livy responded, “It won’t be cold for me!”

On Thanksgiving Day, after an enjoyable visit with Jay and family members, Livy exclaimed, “I didn’t know dying could be so easy!” She died peacefully last Saturday – on Jay's birthday and was buried in Morgan, Georgia, alongside her beloved John.

Olivia Beck taught us all how to live a good and unselfish life. At the end, she showed us how to die with courage, grace and unqualified love for others.

The mere mention of her name, “Livy Beck,” will always bring a smile to my face, followed by a cascade of warm and wonderful memories of this remarkable woman. Livy Beck was easily the most unforgettable character in my life.

Tonia Holland (1955) Helvik: Yvonne Horne was in our classes from the first grade to the 8th. She sent me Miss Montine Martin's address. The two of us, along with Barbara Hornsby, Marlene Kahn, Janice Hayes to name a few were in her 3rd grade class; also some of the boys were Sammy Futch, Jimmy Holloway, Ernest Frazier, Buddy Fleming and Bruce Jones. Miss Martin went to the 6th grade and taught at McIntosh, then she taught 7th grade at the old Jr. High. She retired after teaching Albany Middle School, our old AHS. Phoebe Putney now owns it. Miss Martin lives at 14868 River Street, Blakely, GA 39823. Phone No. is 229-723-3061. She is 88 years old! I have visited her and write and talk on the phone to her. She is beautiful and sharp as a tack. I love her! Miss Martin asked about Mary Ann Thornton. If anyone knows her whereabouts, please tell her to contact Miss Martin. I have found a few "kids" for her!

Percy Warren (1955): It was mid-October 1954, my senior year in high school. Somehow, I had made it this far, but I had a very poor foundation in English grammar. I knew it, but I had fooled most of my teachers. During class one day, my English teacher came to the back of the room and very discreetly bent over and whispered in my ear, "Percy, do you want to graduate?" I responded, "Yes Sir." And he said, "TWO classes a day." I began two classes a day, and after 6 or 8 weeks, he again came to the back of the room and whispered, "ONE class a day.".......... And so I gained an expertise in grammar that I had not had before.

A few months removed from the classroom, I was attached to Attack Squadron 56 on board the USS Ticonderoga in the South Pacific. As a Yeoman, one of my duties was that of being a captain's writer. Can you imagine that? I was a writer for a full commander, Annapolis graduate, and I did all of his official correspondence. For over two years, I filled this role and was competent to excel because of my hero, Billy Bragg. I often think of this excellent teacher and the positive influence that he had on my life.

(Oh how I would have loved to have had a Dell Computer with all the capabilities that are available now. All we had were manual Underwood typewriters and onion-skin and carbon paper.)