The Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board of Education work session on Feb. 20 began like most others. Board members and interim Superintendent Toni Williams took their seats at the front of the auditorium, while MSCS staffers and community members filed in.
The agenda included the usual items that needed to be discussed: the board chair’s report, the superintendent’s report, proposed policies, and an array of potential contracts.
But it wasn’t long before Williams deviated from the standard routine and began talking about her mother, Shirley Yvette Greene, who had passed away in July at the age of 58, after a lifelong, hard-fought battle with sickle cell disease.
For Williams, this was unusual. She rarely discussed her personal life in a public setting. At times, MSCS communication staffers had said to her, “You never show anything personal about you; people don’t know who you are.” Williams hadn’t even told colleagues when her mother was on life support late in the summer.
But there she was, talking to an audience about her mother’s private fight against a merciless blood disease.