SPRINGFIELD, Mo. Many of us have fond memories of teachers who helped shape our lives.
On Tuesday services were held for 69 year-old Gloria Morris, who spent 43 years as a teacher, coach and counselor at Pipkin Middle School in central Springfield.
It's impossible to know how many thousands of lives Gloria touched during her four-plus decades that spanned multiple generations of students.
But if the packed parking lot at her funeral was any indication, it was a lot.
Some of the cars even had tributes painted on their windows like the kind you'd see when a local athletic team makes it to the state playoffs.
In this case though the signs said things like, "I love you to the moon and back" and "Mother, teacher, friend, wife, cousin, grandmother, aunt, sister and counselor-we love Gloria 4-ever."
The woman affectionately known as "Momma" Morris was a mother-figure to many more children than the three of her own. For almost a half-century she was a shoulder to lean on for students in grades 6-8 where fitting in, peer pressure and finding your way in life can make for a lot of emotional turmoil.
"She had said at one time 'In middle school we can break 'em or we can make 'em. I choose to make 'em.' And she did," recalled friend and former fellow teacher Rosalyn Thomas.
"She just knew if you were hurting," added Rev. LaJune Grayson, Gloria's niece. "And if you were she would offer you a prayer, she would offer you words of encouragement and give you her number and tell you to call her."
Thomas described Gloria as an old school teacher who ruled like an iron fist in a velvet glove.
"A child never felt like they were no good or had done something terribly, terribly wrong," Thomas said. "She'd just walk up to you, put her arm around you and say, 'Baby, do you think that was the right thing to do?'"
Born in Kansas and raised in Colorado, Gloria moved to Springfield to attend Evangel and never left. The daughter of a minister father and evangelist mother, she was also active in her New Hope International Ministries Church and served on the board of the Boys and Girls Club and Cox College.
And like many African-Americans living in a mostly white town, Gloria experienced racial strife.
"It is difficult and it was quite difficult for her," Grayson said. "But she knew what her calling was. She knew what God sent her to Springfield to do."
Gloria's godson Micah Jeremy Beasley recalled her words of wisdom from a woman who not only helped him study to become a financial analyst, but offered plenty of life advice as well.
"I remember her telling me one time, 'Ya know, God plants you where you're supposed to be. And at the time it may be uncomfortable, it may be very dark and it may get wet but just like a seed, whenever it is planted, it grows,'" he said.
So in these times of racial tension, political unrest and just plain uncertainty, losing "Momma" Morris is certainly a big loss.
"Springfield lost a warrior for children," Thomas said.
"She was able to affect change in a lot of people for them to understand that it's O.K. to be different," Grayson said. "Her light gives us hope. There's so much more that we have now because of her."
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June 25, 2020 at 06:31AM
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Former Pipkin Middle School counselor remembered for impact on students - KY3
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