February is Black History month and we recently celebrated School Board recognition week creating an excellent excuse to talk to my friend and civic leader, Mary McKnight Wade. Mary falls in these categories for sure, and many, many more.
In our 90-minute conversation, the kind you just rarely have, Mary gave me details about her life, important friends and her family and their history in Rutherford County. Mary has wrapped a life of hurdles into a life of community leadership. She has truly made lemonade out of lemons.
“I wouldn’t recommend it, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” exclaimed my friend and former Murfreesboro City School Board Chair Mary McKnight Wade.
I met Mary the day I was sworn into the MCS Board in 2011 after a City Council appointment to fill a vacancy. In preparation for my tenure, friend Jeanne Bragg, who worked with Mary at State Farm told me, “That Mary Wade, is one sharp cookie,” and she is right. Mary led the Board, she served 1998 to 2014, the way she lives—with compassion, wisdom, and good smarts.
“I wanted to hear the Board members point of view; they were elected by the people and had earned the right to speak,” said Wade, who led a conscilliatory board respecting all of our thoughts. “If you are kind, people will be kind.”
“The School Board always had a big influence on everyone involved with schools from teachers and parents to children to cafeteria workers,” said Wade. “Ron Washington and I hosted what we called our “fireside chats” with the community at Patterson Park and later Allen Chapel. He would answer questions about City Council and I about the schools. We did this every three or four months and it built from 10- 15 to fifty or more participants.”
Mary’s own education in Murfreesboro, after she moved from Christiana following her father’s 20-year service to the Army, started first at Holloway High in 9th grade. In 10th grade, Mary transferred to Central High School as its’ second African-American student. She joined Paul Marchbanks who had integrated the school in 1962. She didn’t make the choice, her father just said she “was going to join the Marchbanks child at Central, and that was that.”
“I made excellent friends, and very quickly at Central,” said Wade. “I was in the band and we marched at the Indianapolis 500. There was bad, from both whites and blacks, but I mainly enjoyed myself.” Wade played clarinet alongside the late Murfreesboro City Schools Director, Linda Arms Gilbert who played the flute, and was in school with former U.S. Representative Bart Gordon. She was good friends with Nina McKnight and savored sharing lunches with her from McKnight’s Restaurant.
Wade graduated high school and married Goldy Wade, her husband now of 54 years, in 1968. She started Middle Tennessee State University in 1969 when she had a small baby, Michael. Friends and family pitched in to help with childcare and she worked towards a major in history.
Life happened, and with a growing family, she stepped away from her education and began working for State Farm in 1972. Wade started in the file room where she was “sewing policies.” (Perplexed, Wade explained that State Farm had pedal sewing machines and the paper policies were literally sewn together by machine.)
“Mary rose in the ranks of State Farm to be a highly knowledgeable service specialist and earned the respect of all who worked with her,” said Jeanne Bragg, her co-worker for ten years and later became First Lady of Murfreesboro.
Wade returned to college, at times working the midnight shift, attending MTSU and raising her then three children, Michael, Lisa, and Melanie, during the day. “I thought it would take me an eternity, but wouldn’t trade the experience,” said Wade. She ultimately graduated from MTSU in 1989, alongside her beloved father.
She found time to volunteer, and was active with schools, the NAACP, her beloved Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and participated in Samsonite softball, which her father organized. (Where that time came from, I do not know!) She was active with Ruth Bowdoin's traveling school where daughter Lisa ultimately worked.
Councilman John Pittard, recognized Wade’s smarts and encouraged her to run for School Board. She lost her first election but passionately campaigned the next go around, winning in 1998.
Wade ended her forty years at State Farm as a highly regarded Senior Auto Claims Representative, and redirected her focus towards our low income schools district. In 2013, she was recognized as a member of the Tennessee School. Board Association’s coveted All Tennessee School Board, and he led the MCS Board, (which I was proudly a member),in achieving Board of Distinction status.
Thank you Mary for sharing your history with us. You are a driving force in the community, and a joyful, honest leader, despite your own hurdles, who never fails to inspire and step-up to give a helping hand to all.
Collier Andress Smith, a former Murfreesboro City School Board member, is a Louisiana native whose career path led her to a prized presidential appointment to The White House. She uses her communications, fundraising and political background to benefit many charities, her children’s schools, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. She enjoys her family, good friends, books, a little red wine, and a lot of tennis. Smith is celebrating 25 years of marriage to husband Fant and they have three children: Sally, Fant and Helen.
