Miss Eddie Mae

Students and community members affectionately called her “Miss Eddie Mae.” In her honor, the restored St. Mary’s Church/Pocahontas Colored School now bears the name The Eddie Mae Herron Center. From 1948 until 1965, she was the teacher for every African American child who passed through the one-room school on Archer Street.

Miss Eddie Mae began teaching in 1940 at the Biggers Colored School in Biggers, Arkansas, and moved with her students to Pocahontas when that school closed. In the Pocahontas Colored School, she taught every subject—reading, writing, math, health, civics, penmanship, music, and even drama. She also held evening classes for parents, extending education beyond the children to strengthen families and the wider community.

A graduate of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, with additional study in reading, science, and health at the University of Arkansas, Miss Eddie Mae brought both education and creativity to her students. Parents were always welcome in her classroom, and former students remember it as “a place where we had everything we needed for learning.” One student put it simply: “It was a place where I learned pretty much everything I know.”

When the school closed in 1965, Miss Eddie Mae continued teaching reading in the Pocahontas Public Schools before moving to Blytheville, where she lived until her death a few years later. She left behind not only a legacy of education, but also a spirit of resilience, dignity, and care that still shapes the community today.