Good Morning POU! It’s Thursday, P.O.U. Family! This week’s open threads are dedicated to the individuals within the Little Rock Nine.
Gloria Cecelia Ray Karlmark (born September 26, 1942) was one of the Little Rock Nine.
She was 15 when she attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School. In 1965, she graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1965 with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Mathematics. During her life, Karlmark served as a documentation expert for a Dutch company and editor of a European computer magazine. She was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.She now resides in Sweden and the Netherlands.
Thelma Mothershed-Wair (born November 29, 1940) is a member of the Little Rock Nine.
Wair was born in Bloomburg, Texas and is the daughter of Arlevia and Hosanna Claire Mothershed of Little Rock. She attended Dunbar Junior High and Horace Mann High schools and despite daily torment from white students at Central, she completed her junior year at the formerly all-white high school during the tumultuous 1957–58 year. Because the city’s high schools were closed the following year, in order to earn the necessary credits for graduation she took correspondence courses and attended summer school in St. Louis, Missouri. She received her diploma from Central High School by mail. Wair graduated from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 1964 and earned her Master’s degree in Guidance & Counseling and an Administrative Certificate in Education from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville in 1970 and 1985, respectively. Wair taught home economics in the East St. Louis School System for 28 years before retiring in 1994.
Since then she has worked at the St. Clair County Jail, Juvenile Detention Center in St. Clair County, Illinois, and as an Instructor of Survival Skills for Women at the American Red Cross Second Chance Shelter for the Homeless. During the 1989–90 school year she was honored as an Outstanding Role Model by the East St. Louis Chapter of the Top Ladies of Distinction and the Early Childhood-Pre Kindergarten staff of District 189. She also received the National Humanitarian Award, the highest award given at the 2005 National Convention of Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc. held in Chicago, IL. Wair and her late husband have one son. In 2003 she moved back to the Little Rock area