Fayetteville State University

Fayetteville State alumnae honored.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 August 2005.

“The chancellor of Fayetteville State University, T.J. Bryan, came to town Aug. 5 to honor as trailblazers eight women who graduated from the school in the 1940s, when it was known as Fayetteville State Teachers College.”

The honorees:

  • Amanda Mitchell Cameron, ’48

Class salutatorian, Frederick Douglass High School, Elm City; retired from teaching in 1987; member of two alumni boards and prolific fundraiser for FSU with husband; member of National Educators Association and NAACP; church clerk, William Chapel Baptist Church.

  • Josephine Farmer Edwards, ’45

Graduate of Nash County Training School; Master of Education, Pennsylvania State University; 38-year teaching career in Wilson and Nash Counties; owner and operator of Edwards Funeral Home; taught at Wilson Technical Community Center; member, Wilson County Commissioner; NAACP Life Member; member, Ladies Auxiliary, American Legion Post 17; member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and Links, Inc.

Graduate of Coulter Memorial Academy, Cheraw, S.C.; Bachelor’s in Elementary Education; played  on two-time state champion basketball team at FSU; taught and coached at Charles H. Darden High School and C.L. Coon Junior High School; elder, Calvary Presbyterian Church; member, Ladies Auxiliary, American Legion Post 17.

Graduate of Williston High School, Wilmington, N.C.; Bachelor’s in Elementary Education; Master of Education, Pennsylvania State University; taught at Sallie Barbour, Elvie Street and Wells Elementary School; also taught at Wilson Technical Community Center and ADAPT outreach center; member, Jackson Chapel First Missionary Baptist Church; recipient, Distinguished Service Award, Wilson Human Relations Commission; volunteers at Wilson Crisis Center and other organizations; board, Freeman Round House Museum; member, Book and Garden Club, NAACP, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Ladies Auxiliary of American Legion Post 17.

Graduate of Wilson Colored High School [Darden High School]; completed two-year program at State Teachers College Fayetteville and later bachelor’s in education; master’s degree in early childhood education, Columbia University; taught at one-room school in Nash County in 1930s and ’40s, then Vick and Hearne Elementary Schools; member, Saint John A.M.E. Zion Church; member, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

  • Alice Marie Shaw Stevens, ’46

Grew up in western Wilson County; attended Rocky Branch School; graduate of Richard B. Harrison High School in Johnston County at age 15; graduated FSU with honors; master’s degree in education, N.C. State A.&T. University; started teaching in two and three-room schools, then Springfield and Lee Woodard Schools; member of Rocky Branch United Church of Christ since age 10; member, Order of Eastern Star.

Graduate of Darden High School; education degree from FSU; married career soldier; worked with Wilson Board of Elections; volunteers with Opportunities Industrialization Center.

  • Artelya Whitley Williams, ’49

Graduate of Mary Potter School in Oxford, N.C., and beauty school in New Jersey; bachelor’s degree from FSU and master’s degree from New York University; served in U.S. Army and Air Force; taught at Lucama Elementary and Spaulding and Spring Hope schools in Nash County.

A.D. Coward, member of the third year class.

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The catalogue for the 1911-12 school year at North Carolina State Colored Normal School at Fayetteville, later Fayetteville State University, listed one student from Wilson, A.D. Coward.

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Arthur D. Coward and his family were newly arrived in Wilson, where his father, the Rev. Bryant P. Coward, had assumed the pulpit at Saint John A.M.E. Zion Church.

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In the 1900 census of Township 1, Craven County: farmer Bryan Coward, 36, wife Sarah, 33, son Arthur D., 8, and niece Malissa Jenkins, 13.

In the 1910 census of New Bern, Craven County, at 2 Green Street: pastor Bryan Coward, 45, wife Sarah, 43, son Arthur D., 18, and adopted daughter Malissa Jenkins, 22.

Arthur D. Coward died 21 July 1913 in Wilson of typhoid fever. Per his death certificate, he was born 17 October 1891 in Vanceboro, North Carolina, to B.P. Coward of Hookerton and S.A. Brown of Fountain Hill; lived at 122 Pender Street, Wilson; was attending school; and was buried in Vanceboro.

Catalogue digitized by North Carolina Digital History Center, http://www.digitalnc.org.

 

The obituary of Lauraetta J. Taylor.

Lauraetta J. Taylor (1916-1977), daughter of Russell Buxton and Viola Gaither Taylor, was a legendary women’s basketball coach at Fayetteville State University. A gymnasium on campus is named in her honor.

Pittsburgh Courier, 26 March 1977.

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In the 1920 census of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina: on Johnston Bow, preacher Russell B. Taylor, 35; wife Viola, 31, seamstress; and children Beatrice, 7, Janett, 5, and Sarah, 1.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on East Nash Street, Methodist minister Russell B. Taylor, 48, widower; children Laura, 14, Sarah, 11, Christopher, 7, and William, 4; daughter Beatrice Barnes, 18, public school teacher, and her son Elroy, 1; and lodgers Cora Speight, 49, laundress, and Mamie Williams, 30, ironer, and Roscoe McCoy, 32, farm laborer.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 536 East Nash, preacher and public school teacher Russell B. Taylor, 52; children Loretta, 23, and Sarah, 21, both teachers, Leonard, 16, and William, 14; grandson Elroy Barnes, 11; and lodgers Isiar Jones, 36, Virginia-born construction laborer; Mitchell Frazier, 32, South Carolina-born truck driver; John Baldwin, 29, Lumberton, N.C.-born tobacco redrying factory laborer, and his wife Clyde, 26, a native of Wilmington, N.C.

1939 edition of The Ayantee, the yearbook of North Carolina State A.&T. University in Greensboro. Taylor’s sister Sarah G. Taylor graduated from A.&T. that year.

Fayetteville State ’47.

From the 1947 edition of The Bronco, the yearbook of Fayetteville State University:

  • Rebecca Elaine Clark

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Elaine Clark’s sister Romaine Clark, also a member of the Class of ’47, was “the lady with the dignified look.”

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 502 East Vance Street, oil mill laborer William Clark, 27; wife Katie, 27, laundress; and children Romane, 6, Jeroline, 2, and Elaine, 4.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 502 East Vance Street, fertilizer factory laborer William Clark, 37; wife Katie E., 37, laundress; and children Romaine, 16, Elaine, 14, Geraldine, 12, Arthur E., 8, Addie E., 5, and William T., 2.

On 25 January 1958, Rebecca Elaine Clark, 31, and Gilbert Joseph Carter, 27, both of High Point, North Carolina, were married in Wilson by Catholic priest Peter A. Washington in the presence of Jual Peacock Anderson, William Franklin Pitts and William Clark.

Elaine Clark Carter died 16 February 2004.

  • Mattie Ruth Hart

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In the 1930 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Grover Hart, 34; wife Mamie, 30; and children William, 11, Rosa L., 9, Addie B., 7, Mattie, 5, and Grover C., 2 months.

In the 1940 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farm operator Grover Hart, 41; wife Mamie, 41; and children Rosa Lee, 18, Addie Blanche, 17, Mattie Ruth, 16, and Grover Clifton, 10.

On 2 September 1955, Mattie Ruth Hart, 29, of Elm City, daughter of Grover L. and Annie E. Hart, married Webster Norman Jr., 28, son of Grover Newman Sr. and Beulah M. Miller, of Fayetteville.

Mattie Ruth Newman died 30 November 2014.

The lady with the dignified look.

The Bronco, Johnson C. Smith University (1947).

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 502 East Vance Street, oil mill laborer William Clark, 27; wife Katie, 27, laundress; and children Romane, 6, Jeroline, 2, and Elaine, 4.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 502 East Vance Street, fertilizer factory laborer William Clark, 37; wife Katie E., 37, laundress; and children Romaine, 16, Elaine, 14, Geraldine, 12, Arthur E., 8, Addie E., 5, and William T., 2.

Esther Romaine Brown died 25 June 1996 in Richmond, Virginia. Per Findagrave.com:

“Dr. Esther Romaine Clark Brown, 72, of Richmond, a retired professor of special education at Virginia State University. Dr. Brown taught at the elementary, secondary and collegiate levels in North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania before she retired in 1984 as a professor of special education at Virginia State.

“Widow of John Clinton Brown Sr., who died in 1981. Survived by a son, John Clinton Brown Jr.; three sisters, Elaine Carter of High Point, N.C., Geraldine Pettyjohn of Sharon Hill, Pa., and Addie Sherrod of Wilson, N.C.; and three brothers, Offie Clark of Aberdeen, Md., W.T. Clark of Hanover, and Milton Grady of Greensboro, N.C.”