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TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR ROSENA A. TALLEY, OF CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, FOR TWENTY-NINE YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR AND FOR HER CONTRIBUTION TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
Whereas, the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives are grateful for the twenty-nine years that Rosena A. Talley served in the field of education; and
Whereas, with her husband the late Frank Talley, Sr., she raised three fine children, Michael F. Talley, Mary Rose Dingle, and Frank Talley, Jr., who have blessed her with five grandchildren and one great-grandchild; and
Whereas, in 1955, Rosena Talley earned an associate degree in elementary education from Coulter Academy Junior College and a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Benedict College the following year; and
Whereas, she taught seventh and eighth grade both at Sparta Elementary School in Georgia from 1956 to 1959 and also at Deep Creek Elementary School in North Carolina from 1964-1968, where she also coached high school girl's basketball; and
Whereas, in 1968, she began teaching third grade at Robert Smalls Elementary School in Cheraw, where she remained for the next twenty-one years, and during these years beginning in 1952, Rosena Talley was also self-employed as a cosmetologist in Rose's Beauty Salon; and
Whereas, in 1965, this dedicated teacher, wife, mother, grandmother of Michanna Talley, Michael F. Talley, Jr., Camela Dingle Bell, William Dingle III, and Frajovon Talley, great-grandmother of Chelsea Bell, and church member began a challenge to the segregated public schools in Cheraw when her youngest son and a few other African-American students began to attend previously segregated Cheraw High School in the face of numerous threats and violent attacks on her home and family; and
Whereas, the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives express their profound appreciation to Rosena A. Talley for her commitment to the students of South Carolina and for her tenacity in the quest for racial equality. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, recognize and honor Rosena A. Talley, of Chesterfield County, for twenty-nine years as an educator and for her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Rosena A. Talley.
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