Marjorie Goff
Miss Virginia Sloan was my social studies teacher in the sixth grade at Walnut Ridge Elementary School. Think that was 1953-54. It was her first year of teaching. She was so well grounded that it could have been her 10th year of teaching!
She was a wonderful example of professionalism while being the most compassionate and empathetic teacher I ever had. When Mr. Miller announced the honor students, for some weird reason, I wanted to wear a different dress for our pictures. She drove me home out in the country so I could change dresses! She said, 'I think that's a perfectly lovely dress you're wearing now but if you want to change dresses, I'll be happy to take you home during lunch hour so you can change!" And, she did. I don't know anyone else who would have done that.
"Miss Sloan" had a wonderful sense of humor, thoroughly got into creating our room's "Chamber of Horrors" for the Hallowe'en Carnival and helped apply white make up to Jack Lawson's face and lift him into the casket provided by Gregg Funeral Home, via James Stallcup's dad who managed the local Gregg Funeral Home! She was the instigator of peeling the grapes for eye balls and noodles for intestines-----I think you get the picture! No doubt much of this had been learned at Miss Hutchison's School in Memphis and at Randolph Macon in Virginia!
Miss Sloan had been to Europe the year before and so was able to make our history lessons really interesting at a time when most of our teachers were still at the 48 or 60 hour level. I'll never forget the way she said "Mesopotamia" and all the other difficult words and showing us the pictures of the Seven Wonders of the World! She usually dressed in a crisp cotton button-down shirt, slim garbardine or wool pencil skirt and stylish flat shoes---maybe Capezzios!
She brought her finance, Judd Towner, to the Hallowe'en Carnival. We all thought he was the cutest guy we'd ever seen. He made several more appearances through the school year and in the summer, they married at her parents' home in Strawberry because her dad was ill. She sent a wedding announcement to every one of her students! Miss Sloan was teaching us what to do and how to do things every moment of every school day. She was a perfect role model. My mom kept house for her sister, Mabel, our neighbor, for several years and we were able to hear about her family over the years. She leaves a huge hole in her extended family! What a wonderful Christian lady she was!
Not many of her students are still living--we are 80 years old now. But she made a wonderful, strong impression on us---she and all her brothers and sisters who did so much for the Baptist Church in Walnut Ridge and the community in Lawrence County. I believe she was my last living teacher. Marjorie Schaefer Goff, Bella Vista, AR.