Reva Standifer Is Honored
Reva Brinkley Standifer will turn 97 on November 16, 2014 and that being so has been honored as the Oldest Dedicated Alumni Member of D.F. Walker High School in Edenton, N.C.
“Miss Reva” is a Monticello jewel but before she was “ours” she was a native of Edenton, N.C. where she journeyed to August 29-30 for an D.F, Walker Alumni Association meeting where she received her distinguished honor.
The local living legend was born to Norman and Adele Brinkley. She entered D.F. Walker High School when it opened in 1932 as a ninth grader continuing on until she graduated with nine others as the Class of 1935.
Miss Reva remembers the school opening in 1932 while being in the midst of the Great Depression which began in 1929. Her high school alma mater closed its doors in 1975 but Miss Reva had long moved on by then and become a Monticelloan.
Upon finishing high school, she attended the Elizabeth City State Teachers College in N.C. After earning her teaching degree she accepted a teaching position in Georgia, beginning her long, storied history as a cultivator of all aspects associated with life and education of Afro-Americans in the South.
She explained what has historically been common knowledge that in the pre-Brown vs. Board of Education era that southern Afro-American children were taught in the community churches where they attended religious services because of a lack of educational provisions by the government.
Miss Reva’s first assignment was at Campbell Crossroads Church School located in eastern Jasper County in the proximity of Hwy. 212. I remembered that as her first teaching assignment from long ago during my first one-on-one historical interaction with Miss Reva. She had recounted a tremendous tornado that struck the church/school and visually impaired a student.
After Campbell Crossroads, she was relocated to Sardis School off Hwy. 11 north. She remained at Sardis until the nation’s school integration process sent her to the Jasper County Training School, now known as Old Washington Park School.
Miss Reva retired after 40 years of distinguished teaching service to her credit.
It must be noted that although the prospect of a career brought her to Monticello, meeting her husband, Willie J. Standifer, and birthing six sons, twins Norman and Nathaniel, Aaron (deceased), Urskine, Richard, and Joel, contributed greatly to her remaining here.
Each interview with Miss Reva reveals some basic fact I did not know about her. This time around I learned that she birthed and raised not one, not two, not three…but six sons. When I asked what was it like raising six sons, she remembered thinking with each pregnancy “maybe this will be a girl.”
However as the boys grew older, she saw her lot as a blessing.
“I taught the boys how to cook, clean, and look after themselves which made it easy for me to go back school and get my Masters (degree). They helped me out a lot! I know now raising girls would have required a lot more attention and I’m not sure I could have done things as easily.”
