McComb High School on Thursday night honored five former students for their outstanding professional accomplishments and a longtime orthopedist for his work with the school district.
Hall of Fame inductees were Mary J. Knox, Jessie Thompson Jr., Dr. Gene Barrett, Lewis Anthony Palumbo and Zachary Patterson. Dr. Thomas Jeffcoat received the Lifetime Achievement award for his work with the McComb School District.
Larry Singleton, a 2015 Hall of Fame inductee, welcomed guests with a story about Barrett, an orthopedist who specializes in knee surgery.
“About 10 to 12 weeks ago, I hurt my knee running. I went and saw Dr. Gene Barrett and I said, ‘Gene, I hurt my knee. I need you to help me run again,’ ” Singleton said. “And he said, ‘Larry, I know two things: One I know there is a God and, two, I know that I’m not Him.”
Summit Elementary Principal Lakya Washington was the mistress of ceremonies.
“It’s always an honor to attend this event,” she said. “It’s inspiring to know that these people began in McComb. I will let every child I touch know that you can be somebody great, too, because the men and women on this stage started out as little boys and little girls.”
Knox, a graduate of the city school system and a longtime McComb English teacher, thanked the people who thought she was worthy to receive this award.
“My teachers inspired me. I always wanted to be in education,” she said. “Even as a little girl, playing with dolls I would play school. I was the teacher, of course.”
Knox told how she almost left Jackson State University because she was homesick.
She said she called home and told her friends and family she was transferring to Alcorn State University, but they encouraged her to stay in Jackson.
“I was getting ready to go and they came and talked to me — I forgot to mention I was crying the entire time — and they said, ‘You big crybaby, stay in school,’ ” she said. “They encouraged me to stay.”
Knox said at first the environment was difficult and challenging, but she settled in was named a cheerleader and pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
Knox graduated and came back to teach at her former high school, Burglund High School, then Higgins High. She went back and got her master’s degree. She became discouraged again, but a little nudge from her husband kept her going.
Knox said she was honored to share the stage with two of her former students, Thompson and Patterson.
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Thompson, who worked for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and has been involved in a number of civic endeavors in Jackson, talked about working at Gad Ellis Farm when he was in school.
“We would get up before day and go home at night and we got paid every two weeks,” he said.
Thompson said he was excited to get his first paycheck, but to his surprise it was only $7.25
“You know how if you look at it hard enough you think it’ll change? But it didn’t change,” he said, calling that life-changing moment the inspiration for pursuing the best in life.
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Barrett said McComb is still a good place to grow up.
He said his dad asked him during the summer between his junior and senior years, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And I said, ‘I don’t know, a basketball player, basketball coach, accountant,’ and he said, ‘OK, I have a job for you.’ ”
Barrett said his father got him a job riding on the back of the garbage truck.
His dad again asked him what he wanted to do, and Barrett said, “I want to be a doctor.”
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Palumbo said he wasn’t really good at anything but talking back in high school. He said one of his teachers told him he wasn’t going to come into her class and just talk.
“Back then we had paddles and I still have the marks from those paddlings,” he said.
Palumbo, who joined the military after college and had a highly decorated military career before working in the private sector in aerospace and defense, encouraged those in attendance to motivate the next generation of leaders.
“People don’t grow up knowing how to win or to succeed,” he said. “You have to have people to help with that. We have to mentor the next generation, making sure they do better.”
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Patterson, McComb’s first African American mayor, said he was honored to attend last weekend’s commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the Burglund High School walkout.
“I listened and observed great pioneers,” he said. “I am here today because I stand proudly on their shoulders.”
He said his graduating class, Higgins High School’s Class of 1970, was the last all-black graduating class before integration.
“I wasn’t the smartest or most studious — probably the most handsome,” he quipped.
Patterson said he accepted the award on behalf of all of the classes of Burglund and Higgins high schools.
“I’m not deserving. They had to endure a lot in the school system and in life in general,” he said, adding that the participants of the 1961 Burglund High School protests “really deserve all the honor and recognition.”
“I most graciously accept this award only on their behalf,” he said.
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Jeffcoat has been the doctor for McComb High sports teams for 20-plus years.
Superintendent Dr. Cederick Ellis said Jeffcoat had a servant’s heart and is a blessing to the school district.
Jeffcoat, originally from Richton, and his wife Joyce moved to McComb when Jeffcoat accepted a residency here.
He said he was surprised when he found out he was receiving the lifetime achievement award.
He said after he finished Baylor University, he and his wife here looking for a place with a great school system.
“McComb was that place for us,” he said, adding that all of his children went to school in the McComb School District and are now a lawyer, doctor and architect.
“And they all married well, too,” he said.
Jeffcoat told the story of when he was the PTA president in Summit.
“The place was kind of run down, so I told them we should clean the place up. It looked kind of bad,” he said.
He said for about a month, he worked to clean up the outside of the school.
“This lady came by and she stopped and pulled back and said the school looked nice and how pretty it was,” he said. “Then she said, ‘I need some work done at my house. How much do you charge?’ I said, ‘Lady, you don’t have enough money.’”
Ellis closed the event by saying that the McComb School District rests on the backs of giants such as the honorees.
“One of them said they didn’t believe they were anybody in school, but anyone who comes through those doors is somebody,” he said.
