Biographies: Mrs. Nettie Pye, 1955, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: June 16, 1955 Winn Parish Enterprise She Nursed Them On Her Knee Mrs. Nettie Pye Was First Grade Teacher For Grads of '24, '25, '26 "I nursed a many one of them on my knee," said Mrs. Nettie Pye, about the 1924, 1925, and 1926 graduates in reunion here June 3-4. Mrs. Pye, still youthful and spry as a cricket, was then first grade teacher. She was happy as a lark at the reunion festivities, and she didn't miss a bit of it. "Some of them cried for a week after entering school, but I finally weened them from their mothers," she remarked. Now for many, many years a resident of Alexandria, Mrs. Pye remembers numerous humorous incidents that occurred during her teaching of the beginners in the Winnfield school "way back then." In 1911-12 she remembers that she had 80 pupils to begin with and she managed to get them started until school officials finally found another teacher to take part of them. She had been teaching the youngsters how to write their names and had sent them to the board to see what they had accomplished. Sam Damico had written "S-A-M D-A-M" when professor Avery went into convulsions with laughter over the incident. In teaching moon phases to a class, she explained the full, the half, and the new moot to the students. Joe Heard remarked of the new moon, "It looks like a fingernail to me." Another incident, the memory of which stays with Mrs. Pye, was the mother who had a beautiful child with lovely curly hair in Mrs. Pye's room. The mother came to school and knocked on Mrs. Pye's door and said, "Mrs. Pye I'd like to see you a minute. My child's hair is full of lice." Mrs. Pye said she went back into her classroom and told the children a make-believe story about the time when she was a little girl in school. She led them to believe that she had gotten lice in her hair. Up went the little boy's hand, and he said, "Mrs. Pye, I've got 'em." Whatever Mrs. Pye taught, the beginners usually became a "set law" with them. She had told them all about coffee and stressed that they should not drink it until they were at least 21. She heard later through one of the mothers that A. T. Drewett, Jr. who was too young to go to school, but had heard the story from his older brother and sister, said "I don't care what Mrs. Pye says, I want some coffee." Mrs. Pye mentioned the McAnally twins (although they were much younger than the graduates at the reunion). She has such a hard time telling them apaprt that she made each sit in a special place. They told her in later years after graduation from school that they had often exchanged places. Mrs. Pye's son, Allen, was a youngster in school at that time. She said the children would come to her and say, "Mrs. Pye, Allen is fighting on the other side of the building." Mrs. Pye said she later learned that whenever Allen was two boys fighting, he would enter the fight "as a peace-maker," only to try to break up the fight. "I taught them never to fight, except to defend themselves," Mrs. Pye added. "I used to have a good time with the swimming hole boys," Mrs. Pye said. "In the summer I had nothing to do but take care of Allen. The neighborhood boys came over and we fixed our lunches and walked to the swimming hole at Port de Luce. Many, many of the hot days we were at the swimming hole. It was always, 'Mrs. Pye, watch me,", "Look, look, Mrs. Pye...". Mrs. Pye had the unfortunate experience of losing her son, Allen, in a tragic incident that occurred while she was a teacher here. She later moved to Alexandria where she taught for many years before her retirement in 1949. She resides at 1777 Jackson Street, and is listed in the telephone directory as "Mrs. Nettie Pye," so that her many friends can locate her when they come to Alexandria.