Obituaries: Zelma Long Frazer, 1977, 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: September 7, 1977 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Mrs. Zelma Frazer, Prominent Winn Resident, Dies Mrs. Zelma Long Frazer, 87, of Winnfield, member of a pioneer Winn Parish family, died at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, September 3, 1977 in a Shreveport nursing home after a long illness. A lifelong resident of Winn Parish, Mrs. Frazer was a retired teacher and was active in church and community affairs. Daughter of the late George P. Long and Virginia Garner Long, she was a first cousin to Governors Huey P. Long and Earl K. Long. Mrs. Frazer taught in the Winnfield school system for 37 years until retirement in 1956. She received a number of honors from the school system and community upon her retirement, and May 18, 1955, was declared Zelma Long Frazer Day in Winnfield. She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Winnfield, the Readers Review Club, Order of the Eastern Star, Pioneer Delphian, National Educational Association, Louisiana Teachers Association, and was an advisor to Future Teachers of America. She was the first president of Alpha Beta Gamma Society for outstanding women teachers. Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Kermit A. Gaar, Sr., of Shreveport and Mrs. R. L. Bowen of Winnfield; three sisters, Mrs. Ben Coulter of Winnsboro, Mrs. Ovey Trahan of Winnfield, and Mrs. Perry Norman of Dallas, Texas; two brothers, G. P. Long, Jr. of Winnfield and Charles Long of Alexandria; six grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren. Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Monday at the Southern Funeral Home Chapel in Winnfield with the Rev. Calvin Phelps, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Winnfield officiating, and the Rev. Robert Gage, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, assisting. Burial was in the Winnfield City Cemetery. Pallbearers were Eugene F. Love, Kidd Farr, Tommy Bankston, Marvin Wyatt, Russell Terry, Dick Cole. From: September 14, 1977 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American A Tribute To Zelma Frazer Some people build legends by simply doing their job better than most other people. Call it dedication or rare ability. Their names live on in their community. Mrs. Zelma Frazer, a retired Winnfield High School teacher who died last week at the age of 87, built a legend that inspired respect, admiration, and love. A tribute published in the Winn Parish Enterprise on May 19, 1955 after she announced plans to retire, gives something of a portrait of Mrs. Frazer, a most unusual educator. Here it is: "Mrs. Frazer has compiled a unique record in her teaching career, due partly to the fact that she has spent 37 years teaching in one school, and in great measure due to the quality of her work. "She is known in some cases by grandfather, by father, and by son, to be severe on truants but quick to find a job around the house for a boy who needs money to buy a suit for graduation. "Her favorite subject as a school teacher has been American History. Her purpose in teaching this course she says is "to make better Americans. I am not a music teacher or a speech teacher but if they can't sing the Star Spangled Banner and recite the Preamble to the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, the Declaration of Independence, and Patrick Henry's Call to Arms, they haven't had American History under me." "In her duties as assistant principal students have found her to be a strict disciplinarian, but also as understanding as their own mother; and many a young teacher has found her shoulder a wonderful place to solve their problems."