Mildred (Harris) Mayo

Mildred Harris Mayo, age 96, resident of Memphis and wife of the late George Douglas Mayo, Sr., departed this life Saturday morning, November 29, 2014 at the Allen Morgan HealthCare Center in Memphis.

Services of Remembrance for Mrs. Mayo will be conducted at 11 A.M. Wednesday, December 3rd at the Peebles Main Funeral Chapel in Somerville with visitation one hour before services. Interment will follow in the Somerville City Cemetery. Arrangements will be provided by Peebles Fayette County Funeral Homes & Cremation Center - Main Chapel of Somerville.

Mrs. Mayo was born March 24, 1918 near Whiteville, Tennessee. She was preceded in death by her parents, Edwin Hardy Harris and Mary Parker Harris. She completed elementary school and high school in the public schools at Whiteville. She was an excellent student and was salutatorian of her high school class. Despite the Great Depression and difficult economic times, she was encouraged by her parents and her extended family of aunts and uncles to continue her education, and she borrowed funds from the local bank in order to do so. In 1935 she enrolled at Tennessee State Teachers College in Memphis where she was able to get a student job doing clerical work in the Campus School. The principal of the Campus School was W.M. (Bill) Robison and when he moved to the position of Bursar of the college two years later, he took her with him as a student assistant in the Bursar's Office.

Mildred always felt that Teachers College (now The University of Memphis) played an important role in what she was able to accomplish and she was able to pay back to the University of Memphis Alumni Association, where she was instrumental in establishing The University of Memphis Museum, known as The Heritage Room. In addition, she and her husband contributed regularly to scholarships at the University, and they established an endowment fund which supports a Graduate Assistantship, the recipient of which works to maintain and further improve the Heritage Room.

Mildred began her teaching career early. The teacher at a one-room school at the community of Lacy in Hardeman County, Tennessee, needed to take some summer school courses, and at the end of Mildred's first regular year at State Teachers College, she was employed by Hardeman County to take the teacher's place for the remainder of the school year. She did a good job and this experience was helpful when she applied for a regular teaching position at Bolivar Elementary School following her third year at State Teachers College. Taking a job at this time enabled her to begin repaying the money she had borrowed to go to college. She completed the B.S. Degree in Education by correspondence courses and Summer Sessions, graduating in 1941 at what at that time had become Memphis Peabody College to begin work on her Masters Degree.

Mildred continued to teach at Bolivar and attend George Peabody College in the summer until August 5, 1942 when she went to New York to marry George Douglas Mayo, who was being commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Naval Reserve, that same day. World War II had caused a few months delay in their marriage plans. Mildred's close friend, Betsy Mowery, accompanied her to New York. Mildred went with Douglas to Norfolk, Virginia for his first Navy assignment and taught for a year at Bayview Elementary School in Norfolk. She remained with Douglas at various locations until he was ordered to the Western Pacific combat zone, at this time she taught at Springdale Elementary School in Memphis and completed her Masters Degree at George Peabody College.

After World War II, Douglas was released to inactive duty in the Naval Reserve and Mildred went with him to Ohio State University to complete a Ph.D. in Psychology. She supported this effort in a number of ways, including teaching at Grandview Elementary School, located in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. In the spring of 1950, Douglas accepted a position as Director of the research program for the Naval Air Technical Training Command, with Headquarters at Millington, Tennessee. Mildred completed the school year for a teacher who had to leave the Millington Elementary School, and she was elected to continue teaching there the next school year. But Memphis State College President Jack Smith saw her name in the newspaper and called her to offer her a teaching position in the Campus School at Memphis State. She was pleased to accept this offer and taught there until she and Douglas decided that it was time for them to start a family.

George Douglas Mayo, Jr. was born in March 1953. When he was five years of age, the Raleigh Presbyterian Church was forming and wanted to start a kindergarten class. They asked Mildred to be the Director of the kindergarten and she continued in this position for twelve years. This completed her highly successful teaching career, having taught at eight different schools and having given hundreds of children a superior start in their education. Mildred's stellar performance as a teacher was exceeded only by her dedicated and loving support of her husband and their son and his family.

Mrs. Mayo is survived by her son, George Douglas Mayo, Jr. (Barbara) of Collierville; two grandchildren, Morgan Robbins (Robbie) of Collierville and Lizz Harrington (James) of Collierville; and two great grandsons, Landon Harrington and Harrison Robbins.

The family requests that memorials be directed to the Bartlett United Methodist Church, 5676 Stage Road, Bartlett, TN 38134 or the University of Memphis Developmental Office, Memphis, TN 38152.

The memorial tribute for Mrs. Mayo can be viewed by clicking here .