Teachers’ careers total 134 years . . . and counting

Sep 3, 2003
CAROLYN NICHOLS
Newswriter

JACKSONVILLE (FBW)—Two Florida Sunday school teachers, in their combined 134 years of teaching Sunday School, have touched countless lives through their Bible teaching. Violet Walton of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Pensacola and Bertha Ricks of Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville were honored recently by their churches for their faithfulness to their calling as teachers.

Violet Walton

In 1931, when Violet Walton began teaching three and four-year-olds in Sunday school at Mount Rachel Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga., the 22-year-old taught from a Sunday School card, instead of a quarterly. The card contained the lesson, and a "golden text" that the class of ten memorized.

In more than 72 years of teaching, Walton taught all ages, from nursery to senior adults. In an interview for Hillcrest Baptist Church’s newsletter printed monthly with Florida Baptist Witness, she said she learned from each group.

"Sometimes God uses the people around us to teach us things that we need to learn. He always gives us what we need when we need it," she said. "I needed to be in the classroom all those years to learn from those people, and maybe the people in there needed me to be there, too."

As the third child of eleven, Walton told the Witness in an interview that she "really has been teaching all my life." The family lived in Tennga, a town which straddled the Tennessee-Georgia border. Their first house was in Tennessee; then they moved to another house in the community, and she began a long tenure as a Georgian. She and her husband, Delmas, nicknamed Joe, operated a service station in Milner, Ga., where they raised three children, Edward, Monty and Jane. They retired to Pensacola in 1973,

The Waltons joined Hillcrest Baptist in 1974, and Violet Walton served as a substitute teacher for the older ladies’ class of 25 after their "regular" teacher moved.

"All the ladies in my class from 1974 have died, and I’m the only one left," Walton said. Her husband also died in October, 1990. Her son, Edward, lives with her; Monty lives in Daytona, and Jane in San Antonio, Texas. Walton has four grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

Other ladies joined Walton’s class through the years, and they have blessed each other, according to their long-time teacher.

"It’s been such a blessing to reach out to members of my Sunday School class." She said. "We’ve shared it all. We’ve shared celebrations — marriages and births. We’ve shared losses with members moving away and moving on. And we’ve shared lessons about how to be a better Christian."

Walton said she recently retired from teaching, because of health concerns. In addition, the gentle woman said she "can’t remember numbers of chapters where verses are found," any longer.

Hillcrest honored Walton Aug. 3 for her long teaching career, especially the 27 years she taught the older ladies class. She continues to attend a Life Group, a weekly Bible study, Young at Heart activities and senior adult choir.

Tom Price, Hillcrest’s administrative pastor, praised Walton’s commitment to teaching: "It wasn’t too long ago that she had a a heart catherization on a Thursday morning and was teaching in her Life Group the following Sunday, just three days later!

"Needless to say, Ms. Violet’s grit makes others with teaching responsibilities who suffer through minor irritants like a common cold more reluctant to take ‘the day off,’" he continued. "Ms. Walton has a Kingdom mentality—heaven’s perspective on life. She is truly a remarkable lady. One would have to spend only five minutes with her to realize how special she is."

Bertha Ricks

Bertha Ricks, who recently turned 86, began teaching in 1942 at Chamberlain Avenue Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., where her family lived. She taught "primaries," now termed younger children. She also taught "juniors" and "intermediates," older children and youth.

"They certainly were old enough to understand what I was saying about the Bible and needing Jesus as your Savior," she said.

She and her husband, J.W., taught separate classes after their move to Miami in 1949. He taught a men’s class, and she taught Bible to married young women, in a time when married couples did not share a teacher.

"I thoroughly enjoyed the married young wives," she said.

In the early 1970’s she became director of the Married Young People Department of Allappattah Baptist Church on 36th Street in Miami. The Ricks’ daughter regularly attended church with them.

Four years after J.W.’s death in 1993, Ricks moved to Gainesville to live with her daughter, Brenda Rhodes. She also boasts two married grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Ricks also began teaching the Senior Adult Women’s class at Westside Baptist Church. She described her Bible students as a "great group of ladies."

"They are so loving, kind and caring," she said. "We reach out a lot.

"We have so much in common, and I can always sympathize with them. I have a couple of ladies facing difficult medical decisions right now, and it is so reassuring to know and be able to tell them that God knows what is best and His hand will guide us."

Mike O’Carroll, associate pastor/ minister of adult education at Westside Baptist, said Ricks is like the Ever-Ready battery. She "just keeps going and going," he said.

Active in WMU, Discipleship Training and Vacation Bible School, Ricks also traveled to Oregon this summer with a mission team to lead Vacation Bible School in a mission church.

O’Carroll recounted her involvement in a "Gatorday" skit Aug. 24: "She donned a Gator jersey and went toe to toe with Donny Young, a former Gator and Denver Bronco lineman. The congregation cheered as Bertha (maybe five feet tall and not even 100 pounds) took down "Goliath" Donny all in fun to promote Gatorday to the University of Florida incoming students."

When she is not wrestling with NFL linemen, Ricks leads her class in visitation and serves as a deacon for her class and another ladies’ class, and meets once a month with the other deacons of Westside.

Ricks’ preparation to teach begins on Sunday afternoon. She uses commentaries, Internet sources and other resources to make sure that her facts are correct. She especially appreciates the LifeWay Christian Resources teaching helps.

"Mostly, I pray for the Holy Spirit to speak through me," she said. "I don’t want to give any Scripture interpretation of my own."

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