Kids' champion: Remembering Shirley Sims
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 13, 2015 1:46 PM
Shirley Faison Sims' legacy can easily be found in the school children she loved and devoted most of her life to -- first as an educator and then as a member of the Wayne County Board of Education
It can be seen as well in her work in her community.
That is how Mrs. Sims, who died Saturday at Rex Healthcare Center in Raleigh, is being remembered today by friends and fellow educators.
She is remembered as well as a good board member and strong-willed leader who did not mind voicing her opinion.
A funeral service will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Deeper Life Church Ministries at 900 11th St., with the Rev. Dr. Staccato Powell, the Rev. Dr. Curtis Lee, the Rev. Faye Baker, the Rev. Dr. Dwight B. Cannon, the Rev. Norbert Simmons and the Rev. Timothy Dortch officiating.
The body will lie in state for more than an hour prior to the funeral at the church.
Internment services will follow in Carver Memorial Cemetery in Mount Olive.
Mrs. Sims, a native of Mount Olive, spent 14 years as a classroom teacher, 16 years in administration and another 18 years on the school board. She was the first minority woman to serve as chairman of the county Board of Education.
"I worked with Shirley a couple of years on the board and she was always concerned with the very best that could be done for each and every child in the schools," school board member Eddie Radford said. "She was very intelligent with the school system.
"She was very easy to get along with. She had her opinion. She was opinionated, but she was always thinking about others and not herself."
Radford attributes Mrs. Sims as being instrumental in getting him the principal's job at Southern Wayne High School.
"It came down to her saying, 'He knows Southern Wayne High School. It would be kind of foolish to look somewhere else when you have a man there who can do it,'" he said.
Mrs. Sims was funny and a lot of fun to be around, Radford said.
"She was always laughing, he said. "She was just a good cheerful person, and I think that is something that you can say that is really nice about somebody.
"Her legacy, to me, is her overall concern with anybody who had anything to do with education -- anyone from the custodians to the superintendent. She was always making sure that they got everything that they deserved and she would help them in any way she could. She was a very helpful person."
Mrs. Sims' career and accomplishments were no surprise to Dr. Wade Kornegay of Maryland, who has known Mrs. Sims since they started first grade together at Carver School in 1940.
They, along with Goldsboro Mayor Al King, graduated from Carver in 1952.
Kornegay said he has fond memories of Mrs. Sims. It was just a few weeks ago, he said, that he had out some photos taken on the old school campus of her and others.
He recalls one class in which the teacher seated her best students in front.
Mrs. Sims was one of the first students in the first row.
"She was a very smart student, very dedicated student," he said. "She was a very jovial person, easy to talk with, to be around. Beginning in eighth grade I remember her being very musically inclined. She could play the piano and was in the glee club."
She was also inclined toward English and the language arts, Kornegay said.
Kornegay said he was not surprised Mrs. Sims went into education or her accomplishments over the years.
She was representative of the 50-member Class of 1952 that produced many very successful students with successful careers, he said.
"So I am not surprised by the dedication of the students, including Shirley, who were in that class," Kornegay said. "Something happened in terms of inspiring us. So we thought we could do anything and accomplish anything and Shirley was among those. So I was never surprised in terms of her accomplishments."
Going into education was a "natural" for her, he said.
Mrs. Sims was very active in the Carver High School Alumni Association.
"I have fond memories of Shirley," he said. "She has always been a very outgoing and active person. She will be sorely missed by all of us. I certainly will.
"She was a good person to learn with, to laugh with, to listen to. She has just always been a wonderful person from that perspective. She will be sorely missed."
Former school board chairman John Grantham served on the board with Mrs. Sims for nearly 12 years.
She put in a lot of years for the system and she will be missed, he said.
"There were a lot of things that we didn't agree on as far as things we thought should or shouldn't be done and the way they we were going about things," Grantham said. "But we both had the best interest of the schools at heart. We just had different approaches on some things.
"Over the years we learned to have a lot of mutual respect for each other because neither one of us was bashful about making our opinions known."
Grantham said that Mrs. Sims had told him several times, even after she got off of the board, that she had a lot of respect for him because he was a "straight shooter" even though they didn't agree.
"I would tell you what I thought, and she would do the same thing," he said. "I have respect for people who just go ahead and tell you what they think and then you can voice your own opinion and agree to disagree or whatever."
Dr. Steven Taylor, former superintendent of Wayne County Public Schools, remembered Mrs. Sims as a "good board member" who was "very dedicated" and supportive.
She had been one of the seven original board members to bring him on as district superintendent in 2000, he said.
"Mrs. Sims was a lifelong educator and professional who always put children first in her decisions as a board member," he said. "She worked very hard as a board member to support programs that would impact all children, make them more successful contributing citizens to society. She led by example, always sacrificing herself to help others."
Taylor credited Mrs. Sims with working with all board members, being supportive of him as superintendent, as well as administration, teachers and support staff.
"The completion of the two new schools and renovations presently under way was and will remain part of her work among so many other accomplishments and the school district experience during her tenure," he said. "Her passing is a great loss to her family, this community and the countless lives she has touched during her life. Her life was one of dedication, commitment, accomplishment and promoting the success of others, impacting so many others in a positive way as an educator.
"For me, she was a great mentor and adviser and someone I relied on for her professional insight and advice. She will be sorely missed, but her legacy and impact will live on."
School board member Pat Burden said she first meet Mrs. Sims when she ran for the school board in the early 1990s.
"I think that her legacy is going to be the work that she has done in her community and for students in Wayne County," Ms. Burden said. "She was a unique lady in the sense that she knew what she needed to do.
"She stood by her word. She did some magnificent things for Wayne County Public School System. She cared about the children. They came first in her life."
Staff writer Phyllis Moore contributed to this article.