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Submitted: 8/28/16 • Approved: 8/28/16 • Last Updated: 8/31/16 • R1153435-G0-S3
Mar 2, 1918 - Sept 14, 2003
Published Monday, September 15, 2003
Esteemed elementary school teacher and principal Julia Lee Moore, 85, of Conway died Sunday morning after an extended illness.
A graduate of Conway High School and Arkansas State Teacher's College (now the University of Central Arkansas) in Conway, Moore served 43 years in the Conway schools as a teacher and a principal before retiring in 1983. She only served one year outside the Conway district.
Moore joined the ranks of exemplary educators in the community including Sallie Cone and Ida Burns, when the Conway school board named a new elementary school in her honor in 1978.
Moore began teaching in 1939. She taught at the former Central Grade School, and in 1956, after she received her master's degree from the University of Arkansas, became a teacher-principal at the newly opened Ida Burns Elementary School. Ten years later, she became a full-time principal. During her years in charge, the school suffered a fire, a tornado and a backed up sewer system, seemingly insurmountable setbacks for someone with less strength of character, but not for Moore.
"When things were going wrong, she would walk up to you and put her arm around you and say, 'This too shall pass'," remembered Ida Burns Elementary School teacher Sarah Frost, who worked with Moore for seven years.
Mary Langston, who began working in Moore's office in 1969, said, "Everyone knows what a wonderful person she was. She expected a lot out of the people who worked for her but nothing unreasonable."
"I feel like I've lost a very dear friend as well as a boss I respected for 15 years."
Peggy Crowell, who has known Moore for more than 30 years, said, "She was very wise and kind with all the people she associated." Crowell taught at Ida Burns for four years while Moore was the principal, and the two were active with the PEO community service organization. "She had a great effect on people."
Betty Courtway of Conway, whose five children all went to Ida Burns while Moore was principal, said Moore "had a great impact on our lives. She was one of the heroines." Courtway's son Tom was a fourth-grade student of Moore's.
Moore's niece, Emily Castle of Conway, said her aunt "touched a hundred thousand lives in Conway."
She said many people have come to her over the years to tell of Moore's place in their lives. "People tell me 'she was my fourth-grade teacher.' She was everybody's fourth-grade teacher," Castle said with a laugh.
Castle added that personally Miss Moore was more like "a grandmother figure" to her, and that feeling seems to have translated down to her own children. Castle said she and her brothers used to "spend the night with Julia Lee," and Moore would cuddle up with Emily and tell stories. "She'd read 'The Three Bears' and 'Red Riding Hood'. That's how we went to sleep."
"There are lots of memories," she added.
Frost said when she began teaching at Ida Burns in 1976, she came to school wearing a pair of painter's pants. Though neatly pressed, Frost said, her principal, a stickler for proper attire, was not impressed.
"About 9 a.m., she came to me and said, 'Mrs. Frost, I'll watch your class while you go home and change.' I'll always remember that!"
"She was your boss but you knew she was a caring lady who would do anything for you," said Frost. "She'll always be my principal. ... What a lady."
Moore is survived by one sister, Mary Moore Fleming; two nephews, David Moore Fleming and John Andrew Fleming; one niece, Emily Fleming Castle; and six great-nephews and great-nieces.
A private interment in Oak Grove Cemetery will be followed by a memorial service at 4 p.m. Wednesday at First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Phil Hathcock officiating.
Conway school administrators are asked to serve as honorary pallbearers and former colleagues are invited to sit with the family at the memorial service.
Visitation with the family will follow that service at the church.
Memorials may be made to the organ fund at First United Methodist Church or to the charity of choice.
Arrangements are by Roller-McNutt Funeral Home in Conway.
Parents:
Louis H. Moore (1892 - 1980)
Lucy Waite Tinny Moore (1892 - 1964)
Contributed on 8/28/16 by hawkinsdonna
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Record #: 1153435