DATE: Sunday, August 3, 1997                TAG: 9708010338

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 09   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAM STARR, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   90 lines

FORMER TEACHER REMEMBERS LIFE IN PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY

Her supple skin belies her advanced age - so smooth and delicate.

Nannie Sawyer Le Grand may have turned 100 last Monday, joining that special group of Americans which numbers in the thousands, but her razor-sharp mind has not aged much past the half century mark.

This retired school teacher can recall details of a life that has been rich with love and service to others and poor in hostility or hatred. Even though Mrs. Le Grand grew up with Jim Crow laws and lived in segregation much of her life, she never let the injustice scar her soul.

``My mother always told me to do unto others as you would have them do unto you,'' said an elegant Mrs. Le Grand, her white hair was swept away from an expressive face with few lines, her lips tinted with the slightest color of red. ``She said if a person has done you wrong, don't look for payback because God will punish them much more. She was right.''

Those words tested Mrs. Le Grand more than once as principal and head teacher at the all-black Piney Grove Elementary School in old Princess Anne County. The school only had two unheated rooms and an outhouse. The children had to walk seven or eight miles to get there because they had no bus.

And Piney Grove had no books. At that time, the 1920s, public schools had a white book list and a colored book list for administrators to choose from, she remembered. The colored list had few books.

When Mrs. Le Grand saw that her students would not receive the required texts to learn her curriculum, she marched down to city hall and demanded the ``white'' books. She got them.

``I just went down and got those books,'' she explained. ``We needed them.''

During her 20 years at the school, Mrs. Le Grand taught hundreds, perhaps thousands of students, many of whom still live in the area. Former student June Walton, who was taught by Mrs. Le Grand in fifth and sixth grade, said that there was never a better teacher. Mrs. Le Grand earned her teaching certificate and bachelor's degree from attending Virginia State, Hampton University and New York University.

``She's a remarkable woman,'' said Walton, who visits her mentor often. ``Everybody that she touched went on to do good. When I get down, I come here to talk to her.''

Born on July 28, 1897 in Princess Anne County, Nannie Belle Henrietta Sawyer was the third of four girls. Her grandmother was a slave and her grandfather was an escaped slave who fought on the Union side during the Civil War.

Growing up on a farm taught her the value of hard work. Mrs. Le Grand often dreamed of becoming a seamstress or a nurse, but her mother would hear none of it.

``A white lady told her that if I became a nurse I would be handling men,'' she said, chuckling. ``My mom said ``no.''

Her love for Jesus, and need to help others, was instilled at Mount Zion AME Church on Princess Anne Road, which her mother and grandmother helped found. Mrs. Le Grand lives by the Ten Commandments, the 23rd Psalm and the 100th Psalm. As a vital member of the black farming community, she learned to share her gifts with her neighbors.

``I'd go and sit with people all night long, whoever needed help,'' she said from a sunroom at the Sentara Nursing Center on Newtown Road, where she now lives. Her 97-year-old sister, Odell Garland, lives down the hall. ``Women having babies, people who were sick. I'd be going home with Paula in my arms at 2 or 3 in the morning.''

Paula is Paula Hilbert, the only child of Mrs. Le Grand's first marriage to Paul Jernigan. He died in 1930, when Paula was 3 1/2, and Mrs. Le Grand didn't remarry until Paula was 18. She stayed married to Colston William Le Grand until his death in 1983. Mrs. Le Grand has one grandson and one great-grandson as well as one stepson, two step-grandchildren and nine step-great-grandchildren.

``When I lost Paul I was ready to give up everything,'' she said. ``But God wiped the tears away. He gave me two good gifts as husbands.''

Ask her why she has lived this long and she has a ready answer.

``I drink no tea, no coffee, no soda and no liquors,'' she said, counting with her index finger. ``I eat anything I want. We used a lot of home remedies. And I never heard curse words in our house.''

Although two hip replacements have kept her in a wheelchair most of the time recently, her health is good and her memory is excellent. Three weeks ago, she recalled, she dreamt that ``Le Grand'' put his arm around her and said that he wanted to be with her always but had to get permission from her parents.

``He told me that they are in the most beautiful place you'd ever seen,'' Mrs. Le Grand said, her brown eyes bright and moist. ``They are dressed all in white . . . they gave him their permission. So maybe I'm going soon.''

Daughter Paula Hilbert, visiting from New York, disagrees.

``My mother has a tenacious personality - she's a fighter,'' said Hilbert. ``I think she's going to be here a lot longer.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by PHILIPHOLMAN

Dial, left, congratulates Nannie Sawyer Le Grand during her birthday

party at Sentara Nursing Center on Newtown Road. KEYWORDS: CENTENARIAN

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