Leila Mable Rocker was born in Carrollton, Georgia, October 6, 1913. She was the oldest of John Tilky Rocker and Rosa Pearl Lyle Rocker’s ten children. She married DeWitt S. Moody, son of Dr. and Mrs. E. A. Moody on January 16, 1938. Mable died February 3, 1998. She is buried in Twin Rivers Cemetery in Brantley County.
After receiving her B. S. Degree in Science from Georgia Teachers College, she embarked on a long and impressive career in the Brantley County School System. In fact, her name has been synonymous with education for well over four decades. Mable’s teaching career began with her employment as a fifth grade teacher at Hoboken Elementary School for the 1935-36 school term. From 1936 to 1960 she taught science and social studies, and for a time was librarian at Nahunta High School. Then, in January 1961, she assumed her duties as Brantley County Superintendent of Schools, a position she filled with efficient dignity until her retirement in January 1977.
Mable received numerous awards and honors in recognition of her educational efforts. She was named Brantley County Star Teacher in 1959. She was listed in the Dictionary of International Biography, 1968; Personalities of the South, 1971; Who’s Who in Georgia, 1973; Who’s Who of American Women, 1968-69. In 1983, she was given the coveted Liston Elkins Award for Community Service.
As a former student and co-worker under Mable’s leadership, and as her personal friend, I have observed her from many perspectives. I have been impressed by her principles in action. She always stressed her loyalty and love of county and her love and concern for humanity. As an educator she tried to instill respect for county, self and others in those upon whom she had influence. Also, she was steward of the natural environment and has personally and professionally worked to enhance and preserve nature’s beauty.
Mable and Brantley County education reached many milestones during the span of her career. In the riot-plagued 1960’s, Brantley County schools achieved a smooth integration under her firm, capable leadership. Hoboken and Nahunta High Schools were consolidated into Brantley County High School in 1967, to offer students a more diversified curriculum. In 1976, the Vocational Division was added, making the school one of the first Comprehensive High Schools in this area. Certainly, those who know and care will long remember the educational “golden deeds” of this esteemed educator.
Mable’s “golden deeds” were not limited to the education system. She was a very active member of the Nahunta First Baptist Church where she served as the Superintendent of the Intermediate Sunday School Department building and remodeling committees as well as pulpit committees.
She was also a driving force behind the construction of the Brantley County Public Library. Even though she suffered a stroke prior to the Library’s completion, she was able to attend the dedication for the new facility in 1991.
Submitted to the Brantley County Historical Society by Virleen Strickland, P. O. Box 44, Nahunta, Ga. 31553.
ADDED COMMENT by Thomas Earl Cleland, Founder of Brantley County Historical Society, and Chairman of Development, “The Story of Brantley County,” and a former student. Having had a personal relationship with DeWitt and Mable Moody, working simultaneously as a part time High School student in their Grocery Store and the Royal Theater in Nahunta during the mid-1940s, I can say they had a tremendous impact on my adolescent growing up experience. Not only did they provide me a “work related experience and an opportunity to earn teenage spending money,” they also contributed to the counsel of my life.
My relationship with DeWitt was always in a business like manner; he was the boss. There were occasions, however, when he invited me, as the only teenager, to “tag along” with himself and other county and local business officials on saltwater fishing trips. He taught me the ethics of the grocery business and later allowed me to be trained as a teenage “journeyman motion picture projectionist,” which on occasions placed "me in charge."
Mrs. Mable was different! Her concern for me as a teenager was always, “What are your plans for the future; what do you want to be?” These questions were always reinforced by “a need for education to support those plans.” There’s no doubt that I disappointed Mrs. Mable during my High School days by not pursuing my full academic potential. She became quite disturbed when I would drop “school books” off at the Grocery Store,” never to be opened before picking them up on my way back to school the following day. I can remember her comment as plain as day, “Earl, you can do better than that!” These comments followed me into my adult life; service of the U.S. Air Force, and later with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. Mrs. Mable instilled in me, as a teenager, the wisdom of “knowing that I had a undeveloped potential.”
Upon discovering that Sylvia and I were to be married at the First Baptist Church of Nahunta, Mrs. Mable took complete charge of the church decorations, and began telling me what was needed to complete her task. Knowing that we were on a limited budget, everything she specified as needing, she told me exactly where we could find those items in the local “forest and swamplands” of Brantley County. Her direction of our wedding program was superb. Sylvia and I could not have been prouder. Did we give her proper “thanks? Probably not, to my regret! It’s not uncommon for “giving people” to be taken for granted.
After our marriage, my thoughts turned back to Mrs. Mable’s earlier counsel, and I began enrolling in a college program while with the U. S. Air Force. This program commenced with the University of Maryland extension program and proceeded to the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and later at Bellevue University where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management. A number of years later, after Mrs. Mable’s stroke, Sylvia and I visited her at the Baptist Home in Waycross on a few occasions. I wanted to thank her for “her push in my life.” After telling her of my college pursuit, she got real excited and although not able to communicate distinctly at this time, I could tell that she was proud for me. And when, I told her that Sylvia and I had established the “same push” for our children’s college education, she got even more excited. What would she have said about, “The Story of Brantley County?” She would have been estatic about those efforts also.
Sylvia and I left Mrs. Mable sitting in her wheel chair that day with tears in my eyes, knowing that she had impacted our lives. Her counsel was for the good of all that came under her influence in Brantley County. What a great lady! Thomas Earl Cleland, a former student.
MORE ACHIEVEMENTS:
(1) Brantley County High School was one of the first comprehensive high schools financed by the State of Georgia for a school with less than 1000 students. The Vocational Annex was financed 75% from the state and federal funds with 25% coming from local funds.
(2) During Mrs. Moody’s administration, ladies on the faculty were permitted to wear pant suits or slacks and tops, “no jeans”. This made many teachers happy because it provided more comfort and more practical for their job, especially when they were on their knees by students in those small desks or better yet on the floor in a circle.
(3) Mrs. Moody started a college scholarship fund August 27, 1976 for Brantley County High School graduates in memory of her late husband, DeWitt Moody. The recipient was chosen by the Brantley County High School faculty from a list of applicants each year in May. The recipients over the years have been Marcus H. (David) Middleton (1977), Kathy Ham (1978), Eugene Nichols Wiley, II (1979), Steven Sims (1980), Dawn Stevens (1981), Ronald Ham (1982), Zena Wiley (1983), Robin Chapman (1984), Stefanie Picklesimer (1985), Terri Page (1986), Darleen Randolph (1987), Rebecca Rowell (1988), Crystal Lynelle Johns (1989), Jodie Jacobs (1990), Tara Brown (1991), Marsha Herrin (1992), Erin Willis (1993), Brenda Page (1994), Charlene Daniels (1995), Tina Mariee Duncan (1996), Jeremy Sanders (1997) and Jeannie Dean (1998).
(4) We have seen the number of schools in Brantley County decrease from 38 in 1921 to three schools in 1969. We have seen the cost of education rise from $7,122.58 in 1921 to $607,321.66 in 1969.
(5) We have seen a small rural county struggle to exist and provide the best education possible for its girls and boys.
(6) Mrs. Moody was also instrumental in the construction of the beautiful, much needed, Brantley County Library. Her picture hangs in the entry, which reminds us of the many accomplishments she had in Brantley County.