Thursday's Internet Edition, September 09, 2010.
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| Anna Lena Cooper |
Anna Lena Cooper has spent nearly 50 years in the halls of Clemmons School, first as a student for 12 years and 37 as a teacher.
Cooper’s ancestor, the Reverend Thomas Cooper, arrived in the Clemmons area in 1794 and members of this family have lived here since that year. Anna Lena Cooper’s parents lived in Raleigh for a short while and she was born there, but the family came back to Clemmons to live when she was 10 months old.
The Coopers’ home was located on Clemmons Road (highway 158) across from the Clemmons family, who built and owned the Clemmons Stagecoach Tavern (now owned by Frances Ogburn). “We lived in the old Cooper house until 1959, when I built my present brick home. The old house was taken down by people from Old Salem for the lumber,” said Cooper. “The highway 158 was an unpaved dirt road and there was very little traffic going by the house.”
“At six years old in 1925 I walked to the new Clemmons School. I remember feeling cheated because I could not ride the bus,” said Cooper. “If you lived within one mile of the school, you had to walk to school. It was very safe to walk from one end of the village to the other.
“Going to school, I walked past several house on a dirt path sidewalk, by Clemmons Methodist Church, Blackburn’s Store on the corner of Lewisville Road, two Blackburn houses where Walgreen’s is now located and a swamp until I walked past Sprinkle’s Sawmill on the corner of what became James Street. By the time I got to high school there were two clay tennis courts about where the Clemmons Library is now.
“The new school was wonderful and had indoor bathrooms. There was a teacher shortage and in second grade some of the members of our class were put back a year. We were not dumb, there just wasn’t enough teachers. So we graduated after 12 years instead of the normal 11,” said Cooper.
Professor J.F. Brower was the principal of Clemmons School until Cooper’s sixth grade. Theodore Ronthaler was the next principal. “I loved school and I learned to love reading from a teacher, Gertrude Hire. I still read a lot,” said Cooper.
Children going to the new school did not have a cafeteria for several years and all the students and teachers brought their lunches, Cooper related. “Some students who lived near the school would go home for lunch. Most of us would take our lunches and sit under the trees behind the school and eat together.”
“ The first prepared food was made by Alma Hampton, who cooked big pots of soup on a wood cook stove. We could buy a bowl of soup for five cents. She became cafeteria manager when this was built and remained manager at the school through the late 1950s. Students called her ‘Ma’ Hampton,” said Cooper.
“When we went to the new school, we had unsupervised recess,” said Cooper. “We had a very high red dirt pile in back of the school that was packed tight and we played on that. There were also see saws and swings. Best of all we loved to play in the old shacks in back of the school. These had been used as classrooms while the new school was being built and after the Farm Life School in the Moravian Church closed,” recalled Cooper.
Through her high school years, Cooper played violin in the school orchestra, which was named state champs in 1936. She also played the violin in her college years and also the piano.
After graduating from Clemmons School in 1937, Cooper went to Appalachian Teachers College in Boone, where she earned a B.S. degree in elementary education. She did graduate work at UNC-Greensboro and Mary Washington College.
“I wanted to build a new house, but on a teacher’s salary, that was very difficult,” said Cooper. “In the summers I worked for an insurance company, managed the snack bar at Tanglewood Park swimming pool, and was a waitress in Florida. I worked hard and saved to build my home in 1959.”
During Cooper’s teaching career, she estimates she taught thousands of Clemmons students, mostly fourth graders. “I loved my students, and enjoy seeing them. So many of them probably do not remember me, but I have a good memory for their names. I taught Mayor Edward Brewer and his law partner, Gil Davis, in their fourth grade.”
Cooper does not drive anymore, because she has trouble with her balance and uses a cane. “My niece has said she would take me to the reunion on Saturday and we can get a wheel chair for me to use to get in the school. I do so want to attend and see so many of my former students and some of the teachers with whom I worked.”
Cooper also looks forward to seeing the changes and renovations made in the old school building by the owner, Edgar Broyhill.
The reunion on Saturday will be a gathering for all the graduates of Clemmons High School from the years of 1926 to 1956 and their teachers and principals. The reunion will be held in the old school building as a drop-in from the hours of 2 to 6 p.m. Allen Tate Realtors is sponsoring the event.