I got a nice note from
Linda Garmon Huggins:
".....I'm halfway through the first cycle of chemo. Will have a full body scan tomorrow to see where we go from here. With Shirley McClanahan Maynor's courage, how can I complain? That girl is an inspiration!
Blessings to you all.
Linda (Garmon) Huggins :)"
and......Bob Ellis pointed me to a story in today's Charlotte Observer about Ed Sanders:
Rocky River High School media center is named after Ed Sanders, who orchestrated peaceful school integration in the 1950s.
By Celeste Smith
Ed Sanders, retired principal of Central High School, and his son Doug Sanders look through the school's annual for 1957-58, the year Gus Roberts became the first black student at the school. Sanders organized a team of students and staff to ensure that Roberts' entry into the school went without incident. "He's a very modest man," Doug Sanders said.
Ed Sanders has always been a humble man, according to his son, Doug.
The elder Sanders would likely say something like, "'I was just doing my job,'" if he had to weigh in on the fact that the media center at the new Rocky River High School in Mint Hill is being named in his honor.
Ed Sanders, 87, is being recognized for his role of ensuring peaceful integration at Central High School in 1957.
"He's a very modest man," Doug Sanders said. "It makes us extremely proud of what he accomplished, without ever looking for the recognition."
Sanders' advocates spent nearly three years seeking out this recognition for the veteran principal and educator. Supporters had wanted a school named after Ed Sanders, but Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district policy prohibits that distinction from going to living people. Sanders resides at Southminster Retirement Community in south Charlotte, where he receives specialized care for dementia and Alzheimer's, according to his son.
Sanders' career includes serving as principal at Garinger High; as an associate superintendent in Charlotte; and as superintendent in Darlington County, S.C.
He retired to Charlotte in the late 1980s.
He was principal of the all-white Central High when Gus Roberts enrolled as the first black student. Through planning and attention, Sanders was able to avoid the clashes that Dorothy Counts faced while integrating Harding High that same school year.
Sanders even took Roberts by the arm and walked him into Central on a day when white students gathered to block the entrance.
In a Charlotte Observer interview in 2007, Sanders said Gus Roberts, who died in 1992 at 51, "deserves all the credit." Roberts became the first black student to graduate from a previously all-white Charlotte school.
Naming the media center is a perfect way of "recognizing those folks that stood with him that day," Doug Sanders said of his dad.
The center has a prominent place on campus, and the view from the inside looks out toward the front of the school and the Rocky River High School sign. Ed Sanders' portrait will in the media center, as will news articles and yearbooks chronicling his work, according to Mark Nixon, principal of Rocky River High School.
Principal Sanders had the chance to see the space in April. Escorted by his son, they met Nixon for a tour of the 265,000-square-foot building.
Dave McKinnon, Central alum class of 1955, arranged the trip. McKinnon started pursuing the naming honor for Sanders in 2007 after learning more about the principal's leadership at Central.
McKinnon enjoyed watching the elder Sanders light up seeing the state-of-the-art amenities at the brand-new school, which opens to students in August.
"This so-deserving individual is remembered in perpetuity for what he did," McKinnon said.
- The Charlotte Observer. 7/4/10
Our 5 grandchildren avoided certain tragedy by minutes and my daughter in law suffered only a minor head injury and a sprained wrist and ankle when a very large tree fell across their backyard.
