TRIBUTE TO W.E. HUNT

"DO YOUR BEST"

By Ann Hunt Smith

(Composer, Music Director, and Teacher)

Daughter of William Earl Hunt

Throughout my lifetime, the memory of hearing my father, William Earl Hunt, say, “Do your best!”, echoes in my mind. These three words were probably implanted in his mind by a loving mother who had not received more than a sixth-grade formal education. However, she was esteemed as a midwife, nursemaid, superb cook, and a faithful worker in her church and community.

William, born October 20, 1900, completed Lucille Hunter Grammar School. For $1.50, he was able to attend Shaw University for high school offered to select students. He enlisted in the army at 18 years old but was honorably discharged shortly afterward due to the ending of World War I. William enrolled in Shaw University to pursue higher education in 1918.

 My father, Professor Hunt, as his students and parents acknowledged him, began a teaching career in the Red Springs and Lumberton, N.C. area where he met his wife, a beginning teacher, who had come from Greenwood, S.C. After a marriage in 1933 performed by the late renowned Adam Clayton Powell at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, the couple settled in Raleigh, N.C., the birthplace of William.

Shepard School in Zebulon, N.C. was my father’s first employment in Wake County. William Earl Hunt was the first and only teacher in a one-room building where all ages gathered to learn the basics – “reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic taught to the tune of a hickory stick”. The families in the community paid Professor Hunt with food and material goods each weekend.

In his next position, Juniper Level School, William received a meager wage from Wake County. With not enough to take care of necessities, he worked as a chef cook on the weekends in the home of Mrs. Goodman, owner of Ladies Goodman Shop on the corner of Hargett and Wilmington Streets in Raleigh. In the summers he traveled to a resort in Rhode Island called “Inn by the Sea”. There he served and waited on, exclusively, the deceased American actress of stage and screen, Tallulah Brockman Bankhead. The resort in Rhode Island was a retreat from Hollywood and the stage for Mrs. Bankhead. She strongly supported civil rights with opposition to racism and segregation; thereby, she encouraged my father to continue to pursue higher education.

As principal of Juniper Level School from 1930 to 1945, Professor Hunt was highly respected by students, teachers, and parents. It saddened their hearts when Wake County assigned him to the position of principal at Holly Springs Elementary School in 1945.

Realizing the importance of education, Professor Hunt fought for the addition of grades seven and eight at the Holly Springs School. Because of the frequent absences in school attendance, this idea was not readily accepted. Professor Hunt saw the need to live in the area near the school to develop a relationship with parents which would allow him to explain the urgency for school attendance. He even engaged resource people from North Carolina State College to talk to the farmers regarding the productivity of their tobacco and cotton crops. The children would be free to come to school. Besides his role as principal, Professor Hunt taught eighth-grade science. He recognized the diverse gifts and abilities of his students, often planning field trips which allowed them to expand their knowledge about the world of science and manufacturing. I recall trips to Raleigh to the dairy farm at NCSU; a local printing press and newspaper, ending up at Krispy Kreme doughnut where the students were allowed to watch the process of making doughnuts. Also, a trip to the Coca Cola plant and Pine State Creamery was included. The students were given doughnuts and Dixie Cups of ice cream for a special treat.

While my father was at Juniper Level, Carol L. Hunt was employed at Fletcher Grove in Wake County and after one year, transferred to Juniper Level. In the 1950s my mother joined my father at Holly Springs as a language arts teacher and remained at Holly Springs until her retirement in 1970. When my father died in February 1960, my mother was assigned his duties as the principal until the closing of that school year.

Professor Hunt was able to further his professional training when wages increased in Wake County. He spent summers studying at Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia; North Carolina Central in Durham, N.C.; Saint Augustine’s in Raleigh, N.C.; and Columbia University in New York to fulfill requirements for certification in Wake County, and to stay abreast of advances in teaching methods and curricula. 

As a child, I looked forward to Friday afternoons when my father would come home after spending the week living in Holly Springs. I was often sad when he departed to return to Holly Springs. I assured him that I would “do my best” in my schoolwork and obey my teachers and my “nanny” and my mother. My father employed an elderly lady who roomed in a house near us to be my “nanny”. Arlene Poole, who I called, “My Poole” cared for me from seven months until I was 10 years old. She was a blessing to our household. Since my mother was teaching fulltime, My Poole took over my mother’s household duties. This freed my mother to be active in the community; especially, in the area of Voter’s Registration. For years she served in Precinct 20 in Raleigh.

           My father, William Earl Hunt, did his best. There are teachers, doctors, principals, and laborers who attest to his diligence in teaching them and strict discipline which prepared them to be successful in their careers. By living in the Holly Springs community, he extended his service beyond the classroom to include organizing the Boys Scout Organization and the Four H Club. The teenage boys in Raleigh, N.C. remember him as their Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Raleigh. I can visualize him even now standing to lead the gospel hymn, “God Is Real”, in the choir loft. My mother sat gleaming in the alto section.

 In February 1960, the ground was covered with snow. After watching his favorite TV show, “Perry Mason”, dad prepared for bed. I can hear him calling my mother who was still in the den watching television with me. “Carol”, he cried out, “I’m having another one of those attacks’. I was not aware of his previous attacks, so I was very perplexed. The only ambulances available to blacks at that time were the hearses owned by Lightner and Haywood funeral homes. When Mr. Bridges, the driver of Lightner’s hearse wheeled my daddy out of the house to take him to St. Agnes, the hospital for blacks, my daddy would not lie down. My mother and I got a neighbor to drive us to the hospital across snow-coverstreets. In the emergency room my daddy was still sitting up, but rigor mortis had set in. Mr. Bridges, the hearse driver, said daddy had a massive stroke and heart attack on the way to the hospital.

A memory I cherish occurred the afternoon before daddy’s passing. Returning from our family doctor, I found my daddy sitting in his favorite armchair holding his hat. I moved his arm to sit on his lap. “Daddy”, I said, “I am going to have a baby’. My father replied, “My baby having a baby”. That baby, my first daughter was born on October 15, 1960 – five days before my father’s birthday, October 20th.

“Do your best!” has continued to be echoed to my own daughters and my five adult grandchildren. Daddy would be so proud of each of them.

Mr. William Earl Hunt

October 20, 1900 – February 13, 1960