Abbie Willacy gave children a head start by caring about them.
The Akron educator treated students as individuals, listening to what they had to say, showing genuine concern for their well-being and helping them reach their full potential.
As the first African American woman to serve as a teacher and principal in Akron Public Schools, she was a pioneer in education who further cemented her legacy by developing the community’s first Head Start program 60 years ago.
The light began to shine more than a century ago.
The Rev. James S. Earle was delivering a sermon July 13, 1913, at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina, when an usher rushed up to him and whispered in his ear.
Listening carefully, the minister began to smile.
“I have a baby girl,” Earle told the congregation. “Her name is Abbie Helen.”
He repeated that story to his daughter every year on her birthday, wanting her to know just how happy her arrival made him feel.
“When I heard you were born, the sun shone more brightly than ever before through the stained-glass windows,” he told her.