When I was just a young girl, growing up on Wiley Street in Walterboro, I attended school in our neighborhood. There was a woman I remember very well, who was an educator to her heart, Mrs. Virginia Frances Beaton Glover. She taught over four decades. Henry Adams declared, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” I will always believe that because many of our teachers lived in the same neighborhood as our schools, it made a significant difference in our lives.
I attended Colleton Elementary School in the 1960s. As the youngsters now say, “back in the day,” each grade level had two teachers, and I can remember all of them. Mrs. Beaton (This was her name when she taught me.) taught sixth grade, along with the late Mrs. Catherine Bright Bodison, who was my (lead) teacher. Those were the days of SUPER STRICT TEACHERS, but I don’t regret it at all because they helped to shape and mold me into the person who I am today. Mrs. Beaton most definitely had a positive effect on me, both she and Mrs. Bodison, among several others.
Mrs. Beaton’s son, Richard, whom we called Cornell, and I were classmates. Before “my time,” Mrs. Beaton was my maternal grandmother’s neighbor. Momma said that Mrs. Beaton would certainly tell her mother anything she felt she should know, and sometimes it resulted in a whipping for her and her siblings (LOL)! When Mrs. Beaton spoke, it was like E. F. Hutton, “Everybody listened!” She kept a vigilant eye on the neighborhood, so nothing got pass her. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were more like that today?
Mrs. Virginia Frances Beaton Glover was born on November 10, 1912 in Ridgeland, South Carolina. She received her early education from the historic Mather School in Beaufort, South Carolina. She furthered her education at Savannah State College and Claflin University, where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. Mrs. Glover taught at Ellis Community School in Ridgeland for eight years and in the elementary schools of Colleton County for 36 years. Consequently, she was with this community for a long time, thus becoming an integral part of it. Even though she retired in 1984, she continued to tutor students until 2000.
In 1946 Mrs. Beaton joined St. Peters AME Church in Walterboro. She served in many capacities such as secretary, president of the women’s missionary society, class leader, steward, and deaconess. Having been very devoted in service to her church, in 1980 she was a delegate to the Quadrennial Conference and attended the General and Annual Conferences for several years. At the time of her passing, she was the oldest member of her church.
An accomplishment that she achieved that was relished by her family and many in the community is that Mrs. Glover was the first African-American woman from South Carolina to serve on a federal jury in Aiken, South Carolina. Active in her community, she was a member of the National Council of Negro Women and assistant secretary of the Mary P. Wiley Federated Club.
She was first married to Richard Beaton, Sr., who passed away in 1976. In later years she married Cyrus Glover, Sr., who passed away in 1984. Mrs. Glover entered into eternal rest on March 10, 2008. Mrs. Glover, we salute you during this Women’s History Month, as one of the pillars of our community because you were an educator to your heart! We love, appreciate, and miss you immensely!
