A SUPERWoman: My Mother – Janie Luther Walker

The three of us thought that we could give our readers greater insight into who we are, and at the same time honor our mothers by each writing a tribute to the women who raised us. The idea occurred to us when Rob wrote a tribute to his mother who recently passed. Henry then wrote a tribute to his mother on April 12th. It is now my turn to write a tribute to my mother, Janie Luther Walker, who was born May 7, 1913, and transitioned on December 7, 1993. I have the good fortune of getting to submit mine on Mother’s Day Week.

I have long since gotten over my sadness over my mother’s death. I will never get over how privileged I feel in having been born to her. My mother was a strong and industrious woman, an educated woman, and also a humble and kind woman.  All of these qualities helped to shape me and my eight siblings into who we are today.  I am not biased in saying that she was an impressive woman...better yet, an impressive human being.  My mother was not only a loving mother and wife, she was also a scholar and community leader; an example to all who knew her. 

 A 1939 Elementary Education honors graduate of Langston University in Tulsa Oklahoma, at a time when few African Americans even went to college, mama was a trailblazer. She was no stranger to hard work or trials and was a master of making it look easy.  She lost her mother when she was nine and was raised by her father and step-mother. She married my dad, a farmer, in 1940.  She proved quite skilled as a farmer’s wife.  In the early days, she could dress a horse for plowing as effectively as she could create compositions or write poetry – art forms of which she was quite accomplished. Early in her motherhood, she once observed from her kitchen window, my oldest brother Luther struggling with one of the animals.  He was about nine at the time and having difficulty getting a mule to obey his commands as he attempted to plow in a nearby field. Mom set aside her household chores, went out and unhitched the mule from his plow, tied him to a tree and thoroughly whipped the animal with a large tree limb. After which, she re-hitched the animal to the plow. The animal obeyed all of Luther’s commands for the rest of the day. When there was a need, she could be found doing barnyard chores; milking cows, feeding hogs and collecting eggs, just to name a few. 

Unlike Rob, it is difficult for me to imagine my mother as ever being a great literary writer. Although

this is something that I feel she would have done well, her life was much too busy on agrarian survival activities, raising her family and serving in the community. She was first and foremost a wife and mother. I cannot recall a day during my childhood when I or my eight siblings did not have a hot breakfast, lunch or dinner.  My mother was definitely a guiding force at home and a pillar in our small community. She taught school during regular school hours and gardened one of the largest gardens in Holly Springs in the evenings.  She was my first softball coach. She was as comfortable competing in foot racing competitions as she was at teaching in the one-room school house, where I received the first six years of my formal education. She never complained about being called upon to put on a set of work clothes and supervise her children, either in her garden or at the livestock barn.  

 Mama was, socially and culturally, a bridge between the 19th and 20 Centuries. In 1965, she

returned to college and obtained a Masters in Library Science from Arkansas State Teacher’s

College in Conway. It was generally held knowledge that mama never made a school grade of less than a “B”. I grew up thinking that she had to have been one of the smartest people in the world. Of course, during my adolescence she was the only college graduate in the Holly Springs community. That added to her stature in the eyes of most residents. Her academic prowess was aspirational for me throughout my academic career, and who knows how many others she influenced just by being who she was. From my earliest memories, she told me that I was “smart”. This made me want to emulate her academic accomplishments. She was a school teacher in small rural schools throughout Conway County for more than forty years – teaching at North View Elementary and Middle School, Mt. View High School, Holly Springs Elementary, Wonder View High School, Nemo Vista High School, Center Elementary and Junior High School and Conway County Training School/East Side High School. For a period, she was also the school bus driver when she taught at North View. At the one room schoolhouse, Holly Springs Elementary she was the teacher/principal/custodian/cafeteria and recreation supervisor. Whileteaching school, never missing more than a few weeks, she gave birth to eleven children–raising nineof them toadulthood and guiding each of them through a four-year college education.  She never complained about having to teach in small, all black, underfunded and under resourced schools for a meager wage of less than $150.00 per month. No, I remember her repeating the lines from an old Negro spiritual with teary eyes, after all nine surviving children got college degrees that she “wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now!” She was a pioneer woman and, given the times, probably destined to be so. 

Mama’s most enduring quality, however, was not her scholarship.It was her commitment to her faith – Christianity. She conducted bible study with us children at home and could be found in her church every Sunday. She would be performing her responsibilities as church clerk or teaching a Sunday School class. She was also the principal architect of many of my grandfather’s sermons. My paternal grandfather was a Baptist preacher. I recall many times when my grandfather, who had a reputation as a powerful speaker, but not as a gifted writer, would come by the house and practice his sermons with my mother who served as his stenographer and sermon writer. She was also the principal writer for the community’s children, who from time to time were required to speak in church or school programs. I wish I had saved a dollar for every speech that she had ever written for one of the local kids for Easter, Christmas or some other event. It would represent a tidy sum of money.

My mother was an upstanding person.  A mother of eleven, skilled agrarian, community leader and spiritual example.  She wore a lot of hats, and wore them all very well.  Yes she was someone who today would be impressive, but considering the times...I will say that she was a SUPERWoman. You may think that it was a difficult thing for her, but based on what she said concerning those times, I believe that she enjoyed her life and believed herself to be successful. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to reflect on my mother and the impact she had on my life and the lives of others.  My heart is full with gratitude and honor that God selected Janie Luther Walker to be my mama.

Woodson and his parents on front porch of family home (1980)