Mamie Luella Williams was a prominent educator and respected resident of Topeka, Kansas.

Williams was born in Greenwood, South Carolina, in 1894. In 1899 the Williams family moved to Topeka to purchase a home on Quincy Street. Mamie never left Quincy Street and her life there was the subject of a 1976 TV special “75 years on Quincy Street.”

As a young girl, Williams attended Highland Park School, Garfield School, and Topeka High School before graduating with honors from Washburn University (Topeka, Kansas) in 1915.

Williams began her teaching career at Lane College in Jackson, Mississippi. With the aid of her father, she was elected to the Topeka Public School System in 1918 where she would teach for the next 42 years until her retirement in 1960. During the summer months, she returned to Lane College as professor of education in 1925, taught at Texas College in 1928 through 1930, and spent four summers at Columbia University in New York where she earned a “Teacher of Education” diploma in 1924.

Williams with the Topeka Public School System included teaching 25½ years at Buchanan School before she was transferred to Washington School as an assistant principal in 1943. She later became principal of both Washington and Monroe Schools before her retirement.

sources:

https://www.kshs.org/p/mamie-luella-williams-papers-1930-1979/14137