Research Notes from an Oral History with Mrs. Elouise Walley, 2023

In 1966, Mrs. Elouise Walley began her journey with Friends of Children of Mississippi as a teacher. Little did she know that this journey would span over 30 unforgettable years. Our interview was quite the spectacle – a game of phone tag that lasted a few weeks (thanks to her grandbabies hijacking her phone and hanging up my calls). But, at last, we finally connected and she shared her story through tears and laughter.

Every time I dive into an oral history session, I feel truly blessed to partake in these moments. I’m endlessly thankful for the generosity of people like Mrs. Elouise Walley, who take the time to gift me with their precious recollections.

Here is a snippet of our conversation on July 20th. We began with her journey with Friends of Children:

Mrs. Walley: Okay at the time in the 1960s, I started in May of 1966. I had come from Tougaloo College and my mother told me that they had started a program which was about half a mile from where I lived. She said you might want to go up there and see if you can get you a summer job.

And it was walking distance so I did. I walked up there and when I got up there, it was in this lady’s house and her name was Nannie Leakes. The lady that was over it was her daughter-in-law, Matylin Loper. She was doing it in her mother-in-law’s house and they had about 15 to 20 children there, ages from three to eight years old. So I went up there and started working with them in May thinking that I was going work up until August and go back to college. But anyway I worked and we kept the children there at her house. We fed them, people in the community bought food, out of their garden, out of their freezers. Whatever they had, they bought the food to where we were. We had a gentlemen in the community, he would pick up the children, would go around and pick up children and bring them there. And we did that for about, I say, up until, we did it in her house about two months, I’ll say.

And then we left there and went to what we called the Mason Hall. It was a Mason Hall, it was the Masonic building. When we started then, we got bout, oooo my goodness, bout fifty or sixty-something children. Yeah, then we had about sixty children because we had bout five, four classrooms. It was an upstairs building, a two-story building, we had two classrooms downstairs and two upstairs. And we kept them there, still no money. [laughs] At that time, they got a little grant from what we called Field Foundation. And that was Mr. Fred Mangrum and them. They were over it, they were assisting us in getting that. They were getting some milk, some chocolate milk, something like…I can’t remember the name of it. But it’s something like Ensure but anyway, it was some milk that they gave and they gave it, and that’s what we fed those children. And we’ve worked there, I worked there, I didn’t go back to college, I stayed there ’cause they wanted me to stay there and help teach and we stayed there. I mean you can stop me if you want to ask questions in between.

Dr. Thomas: Yes, I had a question. So the Masonic Lodge they didn’t charge you all for rent?

Mrs. Walley: No, ah-ah, everything was free. It was just a building in the community that they let us used for free.

Dr. Thomas: And is it still around?

Mrs. Walley: They didn’t have a stove or nothing in there. People was bringing in food being cooked from their home. [?] fed the children. You know, stuff like utensils? We had to bring some from home so we could have enough for the children. Glasses for their juice or water for whatever we were serving. And then we had cans of milk, they called them, little chocolate milk, little chocolate milks in a can. And we served that. We served that when I got started there in May.

We stayed at that Masonic Hall for like I guess six months and then we left there and went to Mount Moriah Church which is the church that I go to. We went from there, this is just really for the site where I was, and they did have a another site in McClean (spelling?) in the same county. That was the only two sites there in Greene County, where I was and they were doing one in over what we called McLain, Mississippi. So they had two different sites in Greene County at the time.

Dr. Thomas: So the first site would be Nannie Leakes’ home?

Mrs. Walley: That correct.

Dr. Thomas: The second was the Masonic Lodge.

Mrs. Walley: Correct

Dr. Thomas: And then the third would be Mount Moriah–M A R I A H?

Mrs. Walley: M-O-R-I-A-H

Dr. Thomas: And you said the church, you still go there? That’s your home church?

Mrs. Walley: That’s my home church, correct.

Dr. Thomas: Is the Masonic Lodge still up?

Mrs. Walley: No, it was an old building then its tore down.

Dr. Thomas: Do you remember what street it was on?

Mrs. Walley: Yes, right now its on Nannie Leakes Street. It just goes around from her house where we was, its on Nannie Leakes Street.

Dr. Thomas: Oh, they named a street after her.

Mrs. Walley: Sure did, named that street…back then there wasn’t no street name now, back then [Laughs]. With all that what she did when they finally named the streets, they named it after her. Back then it was just a road, but it wasn’t no street. But she had did so much work in the community that the street is named after her.