THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020068
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KIA MORGAN ALLEN
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 138 lines
DALE LANE was always up by 4 a.m., organizing in the calm before the storm. She was inundated with paperwork - preparing attendance reports, student schedules and test scores all before going to school.
She's still an early riser. But now when the retired school teacher and guidance counselor from Indian River High School gets up at 5:30 a.m., it's because she wants to. Lane no longer tends to school reports. Instead, she's making a retirement scrapbook, gathering recipes and ministering to home work that had stayed on the back burner.
``To be able to get up in the morning and read the paper and enjoy a cup of coffee is very rewarding,'' she said. It's even more precious because she gets to spend her days now playing kissie-face with the apple of her eye - her granddaughter Tori.
She can afford to reap the benefits of life's most simple pleasures - she's paid her dues. Lane has dedicated 36 years of her life to helping others.
She's retired from the Chesapeake school system. Her husband, Dan, also retired, was a school administrator for 45 years. Lane has two sons and a daughter-in-law who are teachers. At the end of June, the family will celebrate a combined 100 years of educating others.
While welcoming a visitor into her home a couple of weeks ago, Lane, a vibrant, age-defying golden girl, quickly scooped up her Tori. The plump toddler with crimson colored-cheeks and a bright Gerber-baby smile, blocked the entrance.
The Lane family's a close-knit bunch. Dale and Dan will have been married 40 years come August. Beyond the school system, this family has much reason to celebrate. The Lanes' devotion at home shines above all else. The togetherness and guidance they share encompasses the family and enlightens the home.
Dale Lane's role in contributing to a century in education included hours of talks counseling pregnant teens, trying to help them figure out a safe way to tell mom. She ironed out problems with difficult students, she talked about grades - good and bad - with parents.
Lane says those were the extent of the problems she faced back in the 1960s, unlike the drug issues teens face today. She did a whole lot of hand-holding and hugging while blending listening skills and caring as her fashioning tools.
``All my life I've wanted to be a teacher,'' Lane said with a cheerful Carolina accent. ``I grew up playing teacher. I felt like being a teacher was my calling.''
Her colleagues seem to think so. Those who know her best at Indian River High School, where she worked for 32 of her 36 years, first as a teacher and then as a counselor, call her ``a guiding light.'' Lane became director of guidance at Indian River Junior High in 1963 and took the same job five years later at Indian River High School, where she stayed until her retirement last year.
She was a fifth-grade teacher at Indian River Elementary School from 1959 to 1960, later becoming a reading specialist at Indian River Junior High in 1962-63.
``The best experience is working with the individual students and parents and seeing progress made as we worked,'' Lane said.
She made a difference in many lives of students. An Indian River dropout who Lane once counseled returned to the school years later and installed a rug in her office as a token of thanks for inspiring him.
``When he came to me (while attending school), he could hardly read and write,'' Lane said. ``He said, `You were the only one who really cared for me.' ''
She also watched young hopefuls with a dream, like Alonzo Mourning, star center for the National Basketball Association's Miami Heat, turn a hoop dream into reality.
``I was Alonzo's counselor. Alonzo didn't have any problems,'' she said smiling. In high school, ``he had already made his mark where basketball was concerned.''
However, Lane's guidance left him with an indelible impression.
``In his senior year when he got ready to graduate, he came down and asked if I could have my picture taken with him,'' Lane said. ``I said to him, `One day this picture's going to be worth something.' ''
Although teaching and guiding was Lane's labor of love, she once had dreams of traveling the world as a foreign missionary. Being anemic prevented her from doing so.
``Back then when you went for an interview before the foreign mission board, if you had any problems, they wouldn't allow you to do that,'' Lane said. ``So I became a home missionary. And when you're a counselor, that's exactly what you do.''
The Lanes first moved to Chesapeake in 1956, after Dale, then 21, and, Dan, 33, were married and left Whitakers, N.C., Dale Lane's hometown.
``I went to East Carolina University; when I graduated, we came up here and I started teaching fifth grade,'' she said.
Lane first met Dan when a lawyer friend with whom he lived introduced the two.
``She was a neighbor,'' Dan said. ``The man I lived with introduced me to Dale on the front steps of the church.''
Dale played the piano at the local church. The two would see each other from time to time, but it was not until a party the next spring that they ``hit it off.''
They dated. Dale tried to get a job at the elementary school in Whitakers, where Dan was principal.
``They thought she was too young to be a teacher,'' Dan said.
Dale didn't get the job.
``And they knew we were dating and we were going to get married and I was the principal of the school,'' Dan said.
Because teachers were paid more in Virginia than in North Carolina, the young couple married and migrated north to Chesapeake in 1956. Dale landed her first teaching job at Craddock Elementary School. Dan worked as guidance director at Deep Creek High School.
``I worked for four years, then we had two boys,'' Dale said.
The Lanes' sons, Scott, 35, and Mark, 34, carry on the torch with careers in education.
``We never encouraged it or discouraged it, but we must have set a good example for them to end up in education,'' Dale Lane said.
Scott is band director at Oscar Smith High School, and Mark is a social studies teacher at Deep Creek High School. Both are married. Scott's wife, Candace, is choral director at Oscar Smith, and they are the parents of Victoria, or ``Tori'' as grandma refers to her.
This is how it all adds up: Dan was in education for 45 years, Dale for 36 years, their sons, Scott and Mark have been in education for six years apiece and Candace for seven years - equaling 100, Dale Lane said.
Dan and Dale Lane are forever remembered by colleagues. Dan's picture hangs in the hall of Sparrow Road Elementary, where he was the school's first principal. The guidance suite of Indian River High School is named the Dale Doughtie Lane Guidance Suite in honor of Dale's 36 years of service to the children and youth of Chesapeake. At a retirement banquet given for Dale Lane, a social studies teacher wrote:
``That she may touch the life of a child, to empower the tame and harness the wild. Should she ignite a flame, or rekindle a glow, guidance and counseling is the trade she knows. . . .''
``We've enjoyed our work and enjoyed working in Chesapeake for 40 years,'' Lane said. ``And hopefully we will be here 40 more.'' ILLUSTRATION: 100 years of Teaching
[Color Photo]
CHARLIE MEADS
The Virginian-Pilot
Dan and Dale Lane spent their careers in education. Now their sons
are following their example.
Before he graduated from Indian River High School, basketball star
Alonzo Mourning had his photo taken with Dale Lane.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB