UPSON COUNTY, GA - Bios  Worthy, Monroe G.

*****************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
***********************
This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:

Published in  UHS Newsletter 
 Oct 1998

THE MAKERS AND MOULDERS OF UPSON COUNTY

Monroe G. Worthy has to be counted among the
heroes of our community. Born the son of a man
who had been a slave to the Sandwich family, he
was educated at Morehouse College and Ft.
Valley State, and spent his adult life as a
teacher and school administrator in Henry,
Pike, and Upson Counties. Also a successful
business man, he and his wife, Arlene Drake
Worthy, owned a store and a number of rental
properties.


Not only did he invest his energies in
educating children, but he stood for every good
cause. Active in Macedonia Baptist Church,
which his grandfather had helped to found, he
served as a deacon, church treasurer, and
teacher of the Adult Bible Class. He also
served on numerous civic committees and,
particularly, he worked with the City in the
planning and development of the Drake Heights
area. Engaged in Boy Scout work, he had been
awarded the Silver Beaver. He also served on
the Macintosh Trail Planning and Development
Commission. He was the first Black to serve on
a grand jury, and the first Black justice of
the peace.

He retired at age 70, after serving as
principal of the Lincoln Park School for 32
years. He had seen his school grow from 70
students in 2 rooms, to a modem 26 classroom
facility with 740 pupils. At this time, the
school was renamed the M. G. Worthy School.

During the early 1970's when the public schools
were integrated, he served on the Bi-racial
Committee for the Thomaston Public Schools.
Those who worked on that committee and the
Board of Education recognized that his
leadership was primary in effecting the
progressive and peaceful integration of the
schools of the City of Thomaston.

Professor Worthy, as he was most often called,
died on August 3, 1975. Dr. Edwin L. Clibum
assisted in the funeral service, preaching from
text: "Know ye not that there is a prince and a
great man ffallen this day in Israel." II
Samuel 3:38