Pearley Janette Woods

by Lynn McMillen
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Pearley Janette Woods.jpgOn March 17th Pearley Janette Woods was called to her Heavenly home. She was born on June 29, 1924 in Brick, Leighton, Alabama to Elsworth Jarmon and Emma Bean. Losing her mother to cancer at the age of 13, Pearley lived with her grandmother, Mary until she finished Leighton Training School. The next year she moved in with her aunt, Susie Hall, in Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated from Pearl High School and attended Fisk University. In the 1950s she married William E. Woods Sr. and from this union came three sons.

After her sons were settled in school, she returned to her own educational goals and completed her B.S. degree at Tennessee State University and her M.S. at the University of North Alabama. She was a substitute teacher, Head Start teacher at W.C. Handy Elementary and a special education teacher at Central High School in Lauderdale County. She retired from teaching and found a new career when she became the second curator of the W.C. Handy Museum & Library in 1993. It was a job made for her – she had an opportunity to meet and talk to people from all over the country and the world. She was happy to spread the word about W.C. Handy and the Shoals area to visitors. She retired from the Museum in 2005 and took the newly-found time to travel to visit friends and family. A lifelong Christian, she was a member of Greater Saint Paul AME Church where she served many roles over the years – Sunday school teacher, President of the Women’s Missionary Society, Stewardess and the Senior Usher Board. She was also a member of Terry Chapter Order of the Eastern Star No. 599, Retired Teachers, the National Education Association, the Alabama Education Association and a Lifetime member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She was preceded in death by her parents; a brother, Cleveland Jarmon and her husband, William.

Left to mourn her passing are her sister, Delphia Jenkins, Belleville, Michigan; sons, William (Ida) of Austin, Texas, Ivan (Diane), Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Darryl (Bruno), Belgium; six grandchildren, several great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins.

A graveside service and interment will be in Tri-Cities Memorial Gardens in Florence on April 3, at 11 o’clock a.m.

Please consider memorial donations in her name to Greater St. Paul A.M.E. Church or the W.C. Handy Museum in lieu of flowers.

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