Community mourns loss of Childers
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

Bess Childers

Students who attended Trinity Episcopal School will remember being admonished to "control your impulses" by a lady who had a kindly glint in her eye as she said it.

Bess Murry Childers was 98 when she died March 14 at Memorial Herman Hospital in Orange. She is best known in Jasper as the founder of Trinity School in 1954; the school closed in the summer of 2006 after 52 years.

"A lot of people who are now our doctors, lawyers and teachers were taught by Bess Childers," long-time friend Judith Clower said.

"You know, when Headstart opened in the old school building this year, she was so pleased that children are there and learning is still taking place in her school," Clower said.

Joey Cook taught Kindergarten with Bess Childers many years ago.

"I learned so much from her. She was so fair with everybody," Cook said.

It was Cook who remembered that every time the children got ready to go somewhere, Childers would tell them 'control your impulses' to keep them in line.

"She loved Halloween and knew all the songs. We'd sing the black cats and flying bats come out on Halloween night - BOO! And then she'd line them up and we would walk across the street to the cemetery and look for Casper in the trees," Cook recalled.

Richard and Judy Clower said that even when Bess Childers was in the nursing home, she was "recruiting."

Bess Childers and Judith Clower were both members of Daughters of the King, an order dedicated to prayer and service.

Childers requested that in lieu of flower, donations be given to the Daughters of the King at Trinity Episcopal Church, and that her sisters in the order be honorary pallbearers at her funeral.

Before Trinity School

Clower remembers Childers even before she became so involved in Trinity School.

"She had a store on the square next to the old First National Bank building," Clowers said. "It was a gift store selling sterling flatware and all the nice things to buy for special occasions like a birthday or Mother's Day.

"I was one of four kids, and I remember Bess told us our mother liked the Grand Baroque pattern, and all four of us chipped in to buy, oh, I think maybe a teaspoon," Clower said.

Years later, when Bess Childers was closing up her house and having a garage sale, she still remembered that.

"She had a pinkie ring she always wore," Clower said, "and it was in the Grand Baroque pattern, and she gave it to me in remembrance of my mother."

Bess Childers is also remembered for her gardening skills, which she refused to give up, ever.

She got all the people in the nursing home to collaborate on a vegetable garden, called Pickles and got onion sets and seeds. Childers fell out of her wheelchair once when she was working in the garden, and after that she would lay a towel on the ground and lie on her side to work the garden.

She also found a quiet out of the way spot by an unused exit door. The home provided big pots where Childers could plant her own garden, tomatoes, peppers and geraniums, and have a bench to sit outside and enjoy a private moment with nature.

School days

One story Bess Childers loved to tell people was about a goat the school raised to teach children about animals and responsibility. When it came time for vacation, the children drew lots to see who would get to take the goat home, a great privilege, but Selena Powell began crying when her name was drawn.

"The story was she told Miss Childers if she took that goat home, her daddy would barbecue it," Clower said.

Traditions treasured

"The Friday before Bess fell, she called the Belle Jim and ordered a loaf of bread," Clower said. "It used to be her tradition to bake a loaf of bread for every new couple that joined our church, and deliver it in a welcome basket with a red gingham napkin stamped with the church's name."

When Childers could no longer make bread, she continued the tradition by asking David and Pat (at the Belle Jim) to make the bread.

"She had more energy that any person I ever knew," Judy Clower said.

"And she knew how to get things done," Richard Clower agreed.

Judith Clower said, "I'm sure she's in heaven right now organizing all the angels."

Services today at 2 p.m.

Judith Clower said they have a visiting priest who comes from Beaumont, Byron Crocker, who will conduct services at Trinity Episcopal Church today, March 19, at 2 p.m. Father Ron Foshage of St. Michael's will perform graveside services in the city cemetery under the direction of Stringer and Griffin Funeral Home.

"We plan to walk from the church across the street to the cemetery while the bell tolls 98 times," Judith Clower said.

Richard Clower said, "Bess once joked with me that all of her friends have been in heaven awhile, ' and they must think I've gone to the other place because I'm so late in joining them'."