Mary Ann O'Leary

Mrs. O'Leary and Faye Landrum

Mrs.O'Leary was born at Duck Hill, MS. She graduated from Grenada High School in 1937 because the Duck Hill school didn't offer chemistry or a foreign language. Her father told her after she attended MSCW for two years she could go somewhere else to finish college. She said after having been in prison at the "W" for two years, she thought she would finish her sentence by getting a BS in Home Economics, which she did!

The first year she taught was in Ackerman, MS. but transferred the next year to Carrollton because they would pay her $5 more....$110 to 115 a month. West Memphis, Arkansas was the next stop in her teaching career. She taught three classes of Home Ec and ran the school lunch room, feeding 750 students daily. She remembers spending many nights in the kitchen all night preparing meals for the students for the next day.

The Superintendent at Grenada found out that she was running a lunchroom and hired her to come back and only run the lunchroom. No teaching this time.

John O'Leary was stationed at Camp McCain, just south of Grenada. Mrs. O had a blind date with him. They dated a couple more times and she wasn't impressed. But he was smitten. (She says she tells the story, but it isn't true, that he was the LAST soldier at Camp McCain and to keep from being an old maid, she married him. The truth is he was the only man smart enough to chase her.)

During the summer Mrs. O'Leary taught summer school classes in Grenada at the Health Department. A woman doctor from Jackson heard her teach and offered her a full scholarship to receive her Masters in Nutrition at Western Reserve College in Cleveland, Ohio. For the scholarship she had to agree to work at the Health Department in Jackson for two years, which she did upon graduation.

Somehow, which she claims to this day she doesn't know, John O'Leary got her address at the boarding house, where she was living in Cleveland, Ohio. He sent her a telegram and asked her to meet him there in the city. She was so homesick, she would have been glad to see anyone, but it just so happened the anyone was John. Love blossomed and they married.

John was credit manager for Sears after the military and Mary Ann stayed home with daughter, Mary Jo for 1-1/2 years until she couldn't stand the boredom any more. She was at Orange Grove for one year teaching biology and ninth grade math. She had no college math but taught math anyway. The next two years were at Gulfport Junior High teaching General Science.

Her father fell ill, and she and John moved back to Duck Hill for John to help on the farm. She taught three years at Duck Hill.

Upon moving to Jackson in 1957, Mrs. O taught one year at Forest Hill. (If the CHS students had known, I'm sure we would have held it against her.) The next ten years were at Clinton...1958-1968. After leaving Clinton, she taught at Bailey Junior High in Jackson until her retirement in 1981, culminating a thirty-seven year teaching career. In 1970 Mr. O'Leary passed away.

(Between our Junior and Senior year at Clinton, Marsha Fleming, Art Pearson, Bernie Blackwell and I went to summer school at Central High School. I took Senior English; and, you’ll never guess who my teacher was -- Mr. John O'Leary! A wonderful teacher and a sweet man. I had such a good time in his class. Until our visit last summer, Mrs. O'Leary wasn't aware that I had him as an instructor. Even at seventeen I could see what Mrs. O saw. He was special! --Amy)

Daughter, Mary Jo married a Frenchman named Levesque. To be sure that her two children don't forget their Irish heritage, she gave them good Irish names.....Sean and Bridgett. Sean graduated last year from the University of Miami. Bridgett is a Senior in high school this year. Mary Jo lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and is a theater arts and drama director at West Springfield High School. Husband, Richard, is a senior project engineer for John J. McMullen Associates, Inc.

Mrs. O'Leary is an active retiree living at St. Catherine's Village in Madison, MS. She had knee replacement surgery, which has only increased her active lifestyle. Mrs. O takes water aerobics three times a week. (While I was there, a 97-year old lady, who was exercising in the pool when we looked in, called and asked Mrs. O to take her to Kroger's Sunday. So she still drives.)

She would love to have a call or a note from you. But she will be unable to write you back. I have written this for her because she wore out her right hand, writing on the blackboard for us all those years! I have also taken great liberties in writing probably a little more verbatim than she intended me to be. Therefore, I am sure you will all enjoy this and won't tell her what I've written.

Amylou Douglas Flournoy
April 28, 2001