Akron Public Schools’ first Black woman teacher dies at 94

A celebration of life will be held Saturday for the first African American woman to teach in Akron Public Schools.

Educator Mary Katherine Moore Nelson, 94, who taught for more than 30 years at Robinson and Leggett elementary schools, passed away Nov. 25 in Maryland after a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease.

Visitation will be at 10 a.m. Saturday with a memorial service to follow at 11 in Sommerville Funeral Services at 1695 Diagonal Road in Akron.

“We’re all going to miss her very much,” said daughter Netosh A. Jones, who lives in Philadelphia. “We already do.”

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Mary Kate Moore joined Akron Public Schools as a part-time music instructor in 1945, becoming the second Black teacher in the district following the hiring of Herbert Bracken at Bryan Elementary in 1940.

Prominent family in Akron

She came from a prominent family. The daughter of Dalmas and Bertha Moore was born March 11, 1928, in Akron and grew up at 278 Scott St. with her brothers Spurgeon and Kermit Moore. The University of Akron’s InfoCision Stadium stands today on the former site of their home.

The Moore children went to Spicer Elementary and Central High School, and attended Second Baptist Church.

Their father worked for Seiberling Rubber and was a charter member of Seiberling Local 18. Their mother was a former teacher, music director, political activist and founder of the Tea Time Study Club, a Democratic organization for Black women.

“The discipline in our family was music,” Netosh Jones said. “Everybody played an instrument.”

Baritone Spurgeon A. Moore was a pianist and trombonist. He graduated from UA in music education and held a master’s degree in secondary education. The World War II veteran, a member of the 555th Parachute Infantry, taught music at Central and served as a principal at North and South high schools.

Kermit D. Moore, a famed cellist, composer and conductor, studied at Juilliard School in New York and co-founded the Society of Black Composers and the Symphony of the New World, the first integrated symphony in the United States.

Mary K. Moore was a noted pianist, organist and accompanist who organized recitals, performed on local radio and taught piano and voice lessons for over 40 years to Akron children. She earned degrees in music and education from UA and Columbia University in New York, and served as minister of music at Akron Alliance Fellowship, Second Baptist Church, Antioch Baptist Church and Wesley Temple.

She resigned from Akron schools in September 1946 after earning a scholarship to Columbia and later served as assistant professor of music at Langston University, a historically Black school in Oklahoma.

That’s where she met her husband, Elmer Jones, and welcomed children Netosh and Jimi Jones. The family moved to Ohio where Mary rejoined Akron Public Schools as a first grade teacher in 1957, a position she maintained until retiring in June 1989.

Teacher helped develop Head Start

In the 1960s, she helped develop the district’s Head Start program, promoting school readiness in toddlers and preschool-age children from families with low incomes.

The Akron teacher touched the lives of many students, encouraged young minds to reach their full potential and inspired the careers of future educators, her daughter said.

“She was fun, but she was serious,” Netosh recalled. “When it came down to studies and academics, she was very strict on that. She believed that you had to get yourself prepared for the long-term haul: life.”

Homework and music lessons took precedence over leisure time. Childhood friends would be playing outside while the Jones siblings practiced music at their Scott Street home.

“You couldn’t make excuses when it came to studying,” she said. “Studying was everything.”

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As a champion of education, her mother had a profound influence.

“Everybody in my family has at least two degrees,” she said.

A lifelong love of music

Jimi Jones, who lives in Cheverly, Maryland, remembers helping his mother set up her Robinson Elementary classroom at the beginning of each school year and cleaning it up before summer vacation.

“We were her work crew,” he said with a laugh.

He credits his mom for his lifelong love of music. He started out on piano like everyone else in the family, but gravitated toward drums.

“I sat through piano lessons for about three or four years before my grandfather finally bought me a drum,” he said. “They got tired of me playing on the pots and pans.”

The University of Cincinnati graduate and retired urban planner for Maryland is a working musician today, a recording artist who drums with the band Exit 10 in Washington, D.C.

Following the example set forth by his mother, he learned the importance of practicing music.

“That was something that was instilled in me at a very early age,” Jimi said. “I couldn’t imagine someone trying to play an instrument and not practicing.”

Mary taught her children to respect other people and give back to the community. She wanted them to excel in whatever they decided to do, and if they weren’t going to do it right, don’t even attempt it.

“Don’t just say it,” she stressed. “Do it.”

With their mother’s guidance, the children built confidence, developed character, gained discipline and learned they could accomplish anything they wanted through hard work.

“It was very clear what the boundaries were,” Jimi said. “As long as you stayed on the right side of the line, you were all right.”

Netosh, who played piano and clarinet as a child, followed in their mother’s footsteps, earning a dual degree in speech pathology and elementary education from Central Michigan University, a master’s degree in education from Howard University and a STEAM certification from Columbia.

“I love teaching,” she said. “I just fell in line with it.”

She works with students as a tutor and reading specialist mentor.

Happy memories of childhood

Netosh and Jimi have many happy childhood memories of their mother.

“We loved sitting around the piano and singing with her,” Netosh said. “When my Uncle Kermit was around, my brother and I would pretend we had a cello and would play with him.”

They enjoyed taking family vacations to Michigan, renting a cottage in Idlewild and staying for a week.

“When I was probably about 5 or 6 years old, my mother and my father took us to a club to see Jackie Wilson,” Jimi said. “So Jackie Wilson was the first concert I ever went to.”

Mary encouraged her kids to see the world, and they followed her advice by journeying to Asia, Africa and other interesting places.

“My brother and I loved traveling,” Netosh said.

Mary was a charter member of the Akron Music Association and also a member of the National Sorority Phi Delta Kappa and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Late in life, her hobbies continued to be socializing with family, reading books and, of course, listening to music.

“She was such a dynamic person,” Netosh Jones said.

Family matriarch touched many lives

Mary Katherine Moore Nelson passed away in her sleep Nov. 25 at Springtime Home in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings as well as her first husband, Elmer Jones, and her second husband, James Nelson.

In addition to her children Netosh and Jimi, she is survived by grandchildren Turaya Bryant Kamau and Elan Jones, three great-grandchildren and a host of cousins, nieces and nephews.

She also is survived by the former students she taught in Akron classrooms and the pupils who took music lessons in her home.

Donations can be made to the Alzheimer's Association at https://www.alz.org/ or 225 N. Michigan Ave., Floor 17, Chicago, IL 60601, in the name of Mary Moore Nelson.

“I would just really like her to be remembered for a lot of the contributions that she and her family made in Akron,” Netosh said.

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Public Schools’ first Black woman teacher dies at 94