Woman Who Overcame Illiteracy Is Dead At 65
Times Picayune  08-20-1996

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Mary Sampson, a retired cook who endeared herself to many New Orleanians with
her efforts to achieve literacy as an adult, died Aug. 13 of cancer at Ochsner
Foundation Hospital. She was 65.

In 1989, when The Times-Picayune published a story about Mrs. Sampson and how
she had worn her dictionary to tatters trying to teach herself to read, she
was flooded with new dictionaries from well-wishers. The attention took her by
surprise.

"Maybe it's because I'm honestly striving, instead of just laying back doing
nothing," she said at the time.

A resident of the Redemptorist Homes near the St. Thomas public housing
complex, Mrs. Sampson was a fixture at Hope House, where she studied reading
for years and ultimately earned a GED. Later, although she had not gone beyond
the fifth grade at Fiske Elementary School, she enrolled at Delgado Community
College.

Mrs. Sampson was renowned around Hope House for her sturdy will and the
intellectual curiosity that fired her quest to read.

"I want to know," she said. "I really want to know. I tries a lot. It's
something in me. I feel like I've come to the end of what I have and I need to
know more. Like you say you be searching for something - maybe that's it.
That's the only way I could put it."

As her reading improved, Mrs. Sampson flowered as a writer as well, turning
out a journal that chronicled her daily life in vividly expressive terms, as
well as her thoughts and feelings on the issues of the day.

Once she had mastered reading, she was proud of her accomplishment.

"I can read the whole newspaper now," she said. "I'm not afraid of any of it.
World news and everything."

Survivors include four daughters, Joann Green, Joyce Williams, Gwendolyn Shaw
and Janice Lollis; five sons, Joseph, Peter, James, Gerald and Vernell Lollis;
a stepdaughter, Mary Ann Sylvain; three stepsons, Sammie, Herbert and Melvin
Sampson; six sisters, Elaine Hutton, Celia Russ, Mamie Wells, Erma Lacy, Inez
Lacy and Katie Nunnery; two brothers, Charles and Lucius Ross; 40
grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

A funeral was held Sunday at Community Church of God in Christ. Dismissal was
Monday. Burial was in Resthaven Memorial Park. Richardson Funeral Home handled
arrangements.