Retired teacher helps preserve history

Lois Averetta Simms doesn't feel comfortable revealing her age, though much of her life has been dedicated to documenting the history she's lived.

She was born in Charleston, leaving only to continue her education before returning to the city and settling off Jasper Street in the home she said was purchased by her father.

A teacher, archivist and published author, Simms sat down to discuss her accomplishments as an African-American woman.

Q: You were a teacher for more than 30 years, having taught at the Avery Normal Institute, Burke High School and a number of other schools. What motivated you to devote your life to education?

A: I taught at Burke longer than any other school in which I worked -- and that was 26 years -- but I gave the community 35 years of my life. ... I attended my mother's alma mater, Avery Normal Institute. She finished in 1912, but I finished long after that. ... Avery Normal Institute had a double mission. One was to prepare students for college, and the other was to prepare them for teaching. ... I didn't know whether my mother could afford to send me to college right after I finished Avery, so I took a few teaching courses in my senior year. I was taking college preparatory courses, too, though, you see.

When I found out that I had a scholarship, (I accepted it) and went to a junior college in Concord, N.C., called Barber-Scotia. It was an all-girls school at that time. I spent two years there and received an associate degree. After that, I went to Charlotte and earned my B.A. degree in a double major, English and social studies.

I admired my high school English teacher a whole lot. I had her for four years. She was from Alabama and finished at Talladega College. And also, I just like history. I had a good history teacher at Avery, but I didn't admire him as I did my English teacher. He was a one-year teacher for me -- United States history. Well, you can guess now why I chose those particular areas.

I really like history, and I've been able to help young people who want an advanced degree because of my interest in history and because I've kept things. I have lots of historical things that have been helpful to those who want to advance themselves.

Q: Being a teacher is so much more than reading, writing and arithmetic. Teachers are often remembered for their ability to encourage and inspire. What is the No. 1 lesson you wanted your students to learn from you?

A: Literature is very important. Literature is life, you see. ... We made our students memorize lines from literature, and one story that my 11th-graders studied was called "Sixteen." ... It was a story about a boy and a girl who went skating. They weren't together. She was a skater and he was a skater, but you know how it is when you see someone you want to skate with? You say, "Well, let us skate together," and they did. Before they parted, he said to her, "I'll call you tomorrow." Well tomorrow came and she didn't hear from the young man. The next day came and she still didn't hear from him. She just sat by the phone because she believed when he said that he was going to call he would do it. That's a life lesson for a teenager, not to believe everything that a person says to you. Lots of things we say to people are casual for the moment and that's it. Another thing we studied is this, "The saddest words of tongue or pen are these, it might have been." That is true of life. You want to be this or that, but sometimes you never attain that. So it's a sad thing if you are disappointed or you don't reach your dream.

Q: You've had a very close relationship with Avery over the years and left several of your papers there for research purposes. What led you to contribute to history in that way?

A: (In 1985) Lucille Whipper was the first president of what was called the Avery Institute for African-American History and Culture. We were trying to save the school. ... Lucille wanted volunteers to keep things going because you're president, but you need a staff. She asked for volunteers and I volunteered to give time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I filed her mail, I answered the telephone, I clipped articles from the newspaper that I thought would be of interest to the community. ... One day, the director of Avery, Myrtle Glascoe, stopped by and I told her that I was tired of clipping. She picked up the telephone and called Oliver B. Smalls. He was the archivist over at the College of Charleston, and she asked him if he could give me something to do and he said yes. ... Sure enough he gave me a week's notice and I went over to the College of Charleston to do something, and that something was to work with the materials that were the beginning of the archives for (the Avery Research Center).

Q: In all of the work that you've done over the years, what is one thing that you've learned that you'd offer as a piece of advice to the generations coming behind you?

A: Be dependable. Be honest. Accept differences of opinion. ... Those are the key things for humanity.

Reach Christina Elmore at 937-5908.