History/Schools: Mayfield High School, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana
Submitted for the LAGenWeb Archives by: Susan Herring
Date:  Mar. 2000



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"Reverend Roy A. Mayfield (1876-1944)"
Published August 5, 1999, The Guardian-Journal

   Mayfield High School namesake, Reverend Roy A. Mayfield, was a firm believer in 
II Timothy 2:15, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth 
not be ashamed."
  It was sometime prior to 1926 when the Homer/Mayfield School first opened as 
"The Homer Normal Industrial and Bible Training School," located on the site of the 
present Homer Junior High School on Pearl Street. Through the efforts of Reverend 
Roy A. Mayfield and donations from local churches and other organizations, the 
two-story building was constructed. At that time, the school offered educational 
courses in grades one through twelve, as well as music and Bible classes.
   Mayfield was born in Vienna, LA in 1876. He graduated from high school in Ruston 
in 1892 and married Susie Pearl Legardy. He taught public school in Louisiana and 
Arkansas and pastored in a number of churches beginning with Ebenezer Baptist Church 
in Homer in 1902. It was sometime after Mayfield's death in February 1944 the school 
was renamed Mayfield High School.
   The Claiborne Parish School Board purchased the building, establishing the first 
public school for black children in Homer, holding classes from first through tenth 
grades. In 1926, the School Board hired the first principal, Allen Roy Rushing, a 
graduate of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.
   Until 1942, Rushing remained principal helping rebuild after a fire destroyed the 
original school building and was helpful in establishing Homer Colored High. 
   From 1943-1944, M. M. Coleman served as principal, Lawrence Webb from 1944-1945, 
then Professor Reverend John S. Davis from 1945-1958. It was during Davis' 
administration, the school was renamed Mayfield High School in honor of Reverend 
Mayfield. The school also added a home economic cottage, vocational arts shop, and 
football program.
   Other principals were N. F. Harrison who served from 1958-1965 and Huey V. Fields 
from 1965 to the fall of 1970, when the school merged with Homer. At that time, Mayfield 
High School became Homer Jr. High, thus ending all projects and activities of Mayfield 
School.

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