Birth date: Jul 25, 1921 Death date: Jun 12, 2014
Sallie Avo Rasberry Matthews, 92, of Memphis, TN, has gone to be with the Lord on June 12, 2014. She was the wife of the late Robert Bone Matthews. She leaves a son, Dr. Robert Stephen Matthews and wife Wendy, and a daughter, Sall Read Obituary
I surely do remember her well. I can still recite from Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, Caesar, Rime of Ancient Mariner and on….. She gave me an F once for thinking I plagiarized Huxley… I never heard of Huxley??? and once for opening a paper with “Why?” not a complete sentence. I still don’t use complete sentences but do know Huxley and she always gave me A’s and encouragement and I haven’t stopped reading. She help me be who I am. Gale Mattson CHS ’69
Mrs.Matthews was my English teacher at Central in 1967. one of her favorite sayings was “DEGUM YOURSELF MR. LABUE ” if she caught you chewing gum. She was a SWEET SWEET lady all the way. Thank GOD for MRS. MATTHEWS….Joe LaBUE
I have so many wonderful memories of Aunt Sallie that I wouldn’t know where to begin. She was a wonderful, kind lady and I loved her dearly.Mary
It takes something special for a petite woman to elicit fear and respect from teenage boys, but Sally had no problems rendering us attentive. I am certain there are endless stories of lessons learned from Sally that extended beyond the classroom. I recall a day I passed her outside between school buildings and I unknowingly walked over a little garbage. She surprised me with, “Touliatos, are you too good to bend over and pick up that piece of trash? I guess you are just expecting somebody ‘beneath’ you to do it.” Needless to say, I threw that trash away and my mind relives that scene whenever I take the time to bend over and pick up someone else’s garbage.
I had the double blessing of being a student and a coworker of Mrs. Matthews. As a student, I understood and benefited from the fact that she had high expectations of her students. As a coworker, I understood and benefited from the fact that she was very devoted to her students. I learned a good bit from her in both settings. I will also always remember what a true southern lady she was. My prayers are with the family.Sabrina McCullough (ECS class of ’76)
Mrs. Matthews touched both of my children’s lives in a very special way. Just recently when I was talking to my son, he remembered something Mrs. Matthews had told him. It is amazing when one can have that kind of impact on someone’s life. She taught Melanie, 1983, and Cliff Barber, 1986.
Oh my!! What a beautiful lady. I admired her so much. Jim and I were just talking about her last week. I’m sorry I haven’t seen her in a while. I always loved being around her. I want to be like her. Susan DeRossitt
Mrs. Matthews was my senior English teacher at Evangelical Christian School. However, she taught so much more than English literature. She taught us about manners, history, her love for the Lord, and so much more. In fact, she engendered within me such a love for history that I majored in it in college and am now a history teacher myself. She challenged our minds and refused to “spoon feed” us. (That phrase is still something I use with my students today.) One of her favorite English poets was Alfred, Lord Tennyson. She spoke with such passion about his works that I have never forgotten it. One of his works that she taught us to love was “Crossing the Bar.”“Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea,But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark;For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar.”The Pilot is a metaphor for God, whom the speaker hopes to meet face to face. Tennyson explained, “The Pilot has been on board all the while, but in the dark I have not seen him…[He is] that Divine and Unseen Who is always guiding us.”Mrs. Matthews was one of the people whom the Lord used to shape my teenage years, and I will forever be grateful for the impact – academically and spiritually – that she had on my life. She has “crost the bar” and is seeing her “Pilot face to face.” I am sure that she is hearing our Lord say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”Goodbye, Mrs. Matthews. I will look for you when I too cross the bar.Yours, Jack Webb (ECS Class of 1981)
Our loss is truly Heaven’s gain. Sallie was my mentor when I first started at ECS, and I grew to love her humor, her never-ending wisdom, and her pictures of life in another era. She entertained and taught us with her stories of dancing and dining with her father at the Peabody in white gloves, hat & heels. The stories are countless of her unique classroom lessons–so unique that, even today, her former students recount those fondly. Always fashionably dressed, she would laugh about her “bargain finds”: I don’t ever remember her wearing pants to school–always a suit or a dress with perfectly matched accessories. Her family was her pride and joy, and she was always ready to share updates on what they were doing, where they were, etc. One of her first pieces of wisdom to me was the proverbial truth: “Even a mother snake will swallow its young to protect it.” As a young, single teacher, I had no idea the depth of truth in that statement. My deepest condolences to the Sallie’s family: She was a jewel that cannot be replaced, but will always be remembered with love.
I remember the first time that I met Aunt Sallie. It was when my Uncle Robert came by my grandparents house. They were all sitting in the sun room and I was in my sleepers. I thought that she was so nice and pretty. She took a lot of time talking to me and I have very fond memories of that time. She was a very stong woman and had a lasting impression on so many people that she came in contact with. From the Veterans Hospital on Shotwell (the name was later changed to Getwell due to so many war wounded at that VA hospital from WWII). Then all the students that she taught over the years in Memphis. She will be missed by her family and that goes for my sisters and myself as well. She left the world a much better place for all. With love and respect, Bob and Sandy Chambers
