ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605100095
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
THE winners of this year's Credit Marketing and Management Association Mothers of the Year contest are a hardworking group. But whether they made their careers in volunteer or paid positions, each one was careful to put the needs of her family first.
Several of this year's winners began working outside the home at a time when most women did not. They were among the first to worry about whether they were doing a good job of juggling work life and home life. For these women, winning the award assured them that they had.
"I was surprised and thrilled that my children thought enough of me as a mom to nominate me," said Dolores Johns, Mother of the Year for Education. "It tells me that maybe I wasn't a bad mom. That I did not deprive them of attention and love and support."
"It was the most wonderful moment of my life," said Betty Anderson, Mother of the Year for Business and Professions, about the day she found out she was a winner. "It meant more to me than any other awards I have won. Being a mother is the most important thing in my life."
Anderson and her husband were divorced when her children, Lisa and Steven, were in their teens, but even during the marriage, "it was a hard struggle, and I had to work to provide for them."
"She would work late on weekends to give my brother and me anything we wanted," wrote Anderson's daughter, Lisa Rogers, in her nominating letter.
Anderson, a Roanoke native, is an associate broker with Coldwell Banker Valley View. She has been in the real estate business for 27 years.
For many years, she worked nights as a keypunch operator, "but I got bored, sitting behind a desk," she said. So, she turned to selling Tupperware and found that she had a knack for sales. She was proved right in 1969 when she was named Rookie Salesperson of the Year by the Virginia Association of Realtors. In 1975, she became the first woman in Roanoke to own her own real estate company. She closed it in 1988, when her children became self-supporting.
She also is active in the American Business Women's Association, the Vinton Woman's Club, and her church, Vinton Baptist.
"I've always just been full of energy," she said. "I try to put two days into every day of my life."
When the children were small, she took night classes after they went to bed, and learned to play the guitar.
Despite the demands of her career, Anderson always made sure she was home when the children got out of school. She and the children are still close, she said, and they talk to each other several times a week.
``I have never known someone who is so compassionate and kind," wrote Christine Marty Giles of her mother, Simone Marty Devereux, named Mother of the Year for Arts and Sciences.
Devereux, the widow of Robert Devereux, moved to Blacksburg from Roanoke in 1985 when they married. She retired from nursing in 1995 because of a heart condition.
Devereux was born in France in 1934 and came to this country as an exchange student when she was 21. She devoted the next two decades of her life to caring for her husband and children.
When Devereux's 20-year marriage ended in 1967, she found herself facing a number of challenges: She had never driven a car; a language barrier sometimes interfered with communication; and she had no family in this country to turn to for help.
Devereux, then living in Roanoke, refused to allow the challenges to become roadblocks to her future, her daughter said. With only public transportation, Devereux held part-time jobs, tutored French and pursued her education.
In 1977, she graduated with honors from Virginia Western Community College as a registered nurse. Devereux worked at Community Hospital of the Roanoke Valley, Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital, South Roanoke Nursing Home, and Lakeview Manor, a retirement home.
Hilda Burnette, assistant director of nursing at Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital, remembers Devereux as "a very caring and dedicated person."
"Simone cared not just for her patients but for the people around her," Burnette said. "And her children were always a big part of her life."
Most of Devereux's children live in or near their home state. Jocelyne Marty Edwards lives in Richmond; Michelle Marty Viers in Washington, D.C. Both are registered nurses. Christine Marty Giles is an administrative assistant at First Union Corp. in Roanoke. Catherine Marty, born with Down syndrome, lives with her mother in Blacksburg and works at New River Valley Workshop. Gerard Marty, a surgeon, lives in Barrington, Ill. Alain Marty manages a small farm in Giles County. David Dilcher is a student at New River Community College. Devereux has six grandchildren.
Dolores Yuille Johns has a Ph.D., but she can't make ``hotel eggs.'' (You know, the kind of eggs they make in hotel restaurants, not the kind that mom makes at home.) That, as far as she knows, is the only thing she failed to do for her four children when they were growing up.
Johns is the director of the federally funded Title I program for disadvantaged children for the Roanoke school system.
She was born in the Campbell County community of Hodges. She attended segregated schools, which were equipped with worn-out desks and torn, outdated books.
From the first day she went to school, she said, she wanted to be a teacher. "I always knew what I wanted to be. So many children nowadays don't."
She is the eldest of nine children. Her father was a farmer who hadn't finished high school, and her mother kept house, but they somehow managed to get her through college. After that, she said, each child in turn helped the next one with educational expenses.
Johns earned her postgraduate degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech while she worked for the Botetourt and Roanoke school systems and for Virginia Western Community College.
At the same time, she and her husband, William, were bringing up Deborah, Linda, Lawrence and Anthony.
Her resume contains an impressive list of "firsts." When she taught marketing education at the former Lucy Addison High School, her students were so well-prepared and her powers of persuasion were so good that they became the first black salespeople to work in local Sears, Leggett, Lerner's and Kmart stores.
She was the first black faculty member at Virginia Western Community College, where she increased black enrollment by 22 percent, and was the first black faculty member in Virginia Tech's Marketing Education Department, and the only black teacher-educator in marketing in the nation. She also is a licensed professional counselor.
Along the way, she encountered very few problems, she said.
"I had to sell myself as a person who was willing to cooperate. I can get along with all kinds of people."
She has won awards from the U.S. Department of Education and is involved with her church, High Street Baptist, and many civic organizations.
Despite her busy schedule, "my family has always taken priority with me," she said. "Without my husband's support, I wouldn't have been able to pull it off."
When the concept of "quality time" was first being discussed, Johns researched it thoroughly and became a believer. She included the children in everything she did, including the shopping, which gave her a chance to teach them about price comparisons.
When she had to attend meetings or classes out of town, the entire family went along. William took them sightseeing during the day, and the children got to enjoy "hotel eggs."
"I took advantage of all the time I could spend with them," she said. They were kept so busy with other activities that "I don't think they had time to feel deprived," she said.
Johns said she was very conscious of the fact that she was doing something different at a time when most women stayed at home, "but I needed to work," she said.
It was a much gentler time when Alice Parson Paine of Salem, Mother of the Year for Family Life, was bringing up her two children, Emily and Robert.
In his nominating letter, Robert wrote that his mother's encouragement to talk to strangers and to treat them kindly prepared him for life.
"After many travels and countless strangers, I have always been guided by this experience," he wrote.
"I think you should show kindness to all of God's people," his mother said.
Paine is reluctant to talk about herself. She'd rather talk about her husband, Robert E. Paine Jr., a retired physician, whom she describes as someone who prefers to stay in the background while doing good things for the community.
Coincidentally, that's exactly how Paine's daughter, Emily Paine Brady, describes her.
"She is shy, far more given to holding hands than holding office," Brady wrote in her nominating letter. "She is an everyday saint, whose kindnesses and counseling are only known when someone tells me about them."
"I don't like to tell people about what I've done," Paine acknowledged.
Paine is a Richlands native and a graduate of Mary Baldwin College. She worked as a research chemist and science teacher until Brady, the first of her two children, was born.
After her husband completed his military service during the Korean War, she did the bookkeeping for his practice. She began working with alcoholics, especially women, during the 1960s, and helped her husband establish a rehabilitation program when he quit private practice.
Paine became interested in helping alcoholics while growing up in Tazwell County, where the moonshine was plentiful and other diversions often weren't. She saw firsthand the effects alcoholism had on families she knew.
Although she is very active in organizations such as the Salem Presbyterian Church, the Friends of the Salem Library, the Salem and Roanoke Valley historical societies, the Archaeological Society, the Salem Garden Club, Bethany Hall and the West End Center, her children never felt neglected, Brady said.
She saw to it that her children were active in their church, and she read to them every day from the age of 6 weeks, Brady wrote. She "kept promises and secrets" and "gave honest answers."
Brady said she and her brother got along fairly well because their mother "always gave each of us what we needed at the time."
"You have to give children your time and attention," Paine said. "You have to teach them respect for God, their fellow man and themselves."
When Louise Williams, Mother of the Year for Community Affairs, was in high school, she began doing the two things that would eventually have a profound effect on her life. She started doing other people's hair, and she started to attend meetings.
Hairstyling became her career. For 30 years, she was part owner of a salon on Henry Street that attracted customers from all over Southwest Virginia. During holidays, she and her partner, Lillian Tucker, would often keep the shop open until after midnight.
Although she has been officially retired for several years, Williams still works part time out of her home, doing hair for her family and friends. In her spare time, she takes her skills to shut-ins and nursing home patients.
Going to meetings was a hobby, but it was no less important to Williams.
Besides being active in her church, Ebenezer A.M.E., she has been involved in the Harrison Heritage Cultural Center, the Fairland Neighborhood Civic Organization, the Girl Scouts and the American Cancer Society. She also has worked for various political causes and with her beautician's union. Most recently, she was asked to serve a three-year term on Roanoke's Board of Zoning Appeals.
Among the gatherings she was sure to attend were the public meetings held by Jim Olin, the former 5th district congressman.
"I never missed one of those," she said.
She was one of several people who suggested to Olin that the state build a nursing home for its veterans. She had been taking care of her disabled cousin for many years, and the federal government was already paying for his housing and medical care. She thought it would make more sense to do it in a nursing home setting. Because of the efforts of several veterans groups and citizens like Williams, the Virginia Veteran's Care Center opened in 1991.
Williams has one son, Willie P. Terry, and two granddaughters. She believes the best way to bring up children is to provide a good example and to spend time with them.
"They see the good things you do," she said.
Rachel Yuille, Mother of the Year for Religious Activities, says she wishes group prayer and Bible readings were still part of the public school curriculum, as they were when she was growing up.
Because they aren't, Yuille said, she tried to show her faith in other ways during the 35 years she worked as an instructional aide with the Roanoke schools.
The Golden Rule is especially important when dealing with children, she said.
"I try to treat the children like I would want someone to treat my child. I also tell them to speak well of somebody and to be positive."
Setting an example is important, too, she said.
"Children do what they see you doing."
On May 4, Yuille retired from the school system, after 33 years at what is now the Lincoln Terrace Saturn Network School.
"I have mixed emotions" about retiring, Yuille said.
"I just hope I've touched some lives, made a difference in a child's life."
In her nominating letter, Yuille's elder daughter, Joyce Yuille, said her mother often gave clothing to children who weren't adequately dressed.
"For her, the concerns of children at Lincoln Terrace have always been her number one priority," wrote Yuille's younger daughter, Charlotte Yuille-Barnes.
"She spent weekends and nights working for projects that would benefit the students," wrote Peggy Sue, Bettina and Kelly Mason, lifelong friends of the Yuille family, in a joint nominating letter.
Yuille has been a member of High Street Baptist Church for 33 years, where she was voted Mother of the Year in 1983. She has a son, Horace, who is Joyce's twin.
Yuille has always supported her children in anything they wanted to do, Joyce Yuille wrote.
"Wherever young people were involved, you can believe the Yuille children were involved," the Masons wrote.
Staff writer Tracy Lee Gallimore contributed information to this story.
LENGTH: Long : 253 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ARNE KUHLMANN/Staff 1. Honored as 1996 Mothers of theby CNBYear are (from left) Dolores Johns, Betty Anderson, Rachel Yuille,
Alice Paine, Louise Williams and Simone Devereux. 2. (headshots)
Anderson< Devereux< Johns< Paine< Williams< Yuille< color.