Retired teacher to celebrate 100th birthday

Avicia Thorpe remembers her grandmother talking about being a young girl when General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox in 1865.

“She must have been about 6 years old then,” Avicia Thorpe said, counting back in time as she looked at a black-and-white photograph of her grandmother.

“I didn’t know enough to ask questions then,” she said. “Or I would have asked her about slavery. But I didn’t think of it then.”

Thorpe, who turns 100 on April 19, not only remembers history, she’s a part of it and proud to be 100. From a husband who served in World War I, to her own participation in the civil rights movement as a financial contributor and educator, she’s seen a great deal of change, some good, some which saddens her.

Thorpe is disappointed that God has been taken out of the schools, and that educators and even parents aren’t allowed to discipline students as they once were. And while she’s been grateful for every year God’s given her, Thorpe said she hadn’t thought too much about it until recently.

“I hadn’t really thought about it (turning 100) until last year after I reached 99,” Thorpe said. “I said I wanted to make it to 100.

“A few years ago, women didn’t tell their age but when I reached age 50, I just wanted to broadcast to the world that I had reached the half-century mark. Now to think I’ve reached the whole century mark?” she said, laughing.

“I just never thought about how many years I wanted to live before that.”

A well-rounded life
Friends, family members and former students will help Thorpe celebrate her 100th birthday today at the Stratford Inn Conference Center.

Thorpe was born in Danville in 1908, the eighth of 10 children.

She graduated from the Pittsylvania Industrial School before going on to receive her Bachelor of Science degree from Bluefield State College in 1933.

A teacher, Thorpe became a faculty member at Westmoreland High School, which would later be named John M. Langston. She became head of the language arts department and was a teacher until 1966, when religion wasn’t as welcome in public schools.

“I always said I didn’t want to teach in school if prayer wasn’t allowed,” Thorpe said. “I retired in 1966 and the next fall they took prayer out of the schools. I got out just in time.”

A member of Trinity Baptist Church for 88 years, she not only attended service on Sundays, but worked for years with Cradle Roll and the home study departments which she organized.

After returning from college, Thorpe met and 10 years later married the Rev. C.M. Thorpe, pastor at Trinity. She now sings in the senior choir and remains active.

As Thorpe has done for almost a decade, she’s prepared a birthday poem to mark the occasion of her 100th birthday.

“I’m not going to give that away yet,” she said. “That’s for the party.”

Thorpe credits God and good genes for her longevity. An older sister died in 2005 at the age of 102.

‘There were consequences’
It may have been a blessed century, but it wasn’t an easy one.

Born before either women or blacks had the right to vote, Thorpe has seen the evolution of rights and attitudes. Racial tension wasn’t such a problem back then, she said, but only as long as certain unspoken rules were followed.

“We were just coming out of slavery at that time and that’s what we knew,” Thorpe said. “Blacks and whites got along all right, but blacks had their place and were supposed to stay in their place.
“If we didn’t stay in it, there were consequences.”

A lifetime member of the NAACP and the National Council of Negro Women, Thorpe said she joined when a lifetime membership cost $500 — the equivalent of her first year’s teaching salary.
“That was a lot of money back then,” she said, noting she’s glad she did it.

Thorpe has watched Danville’s history unfold and has played a significant part in it.

“I didn’t participate in the demonstrations,” she said of the civil rights marches of the 1960s, “but I contributed financially.”

A teacher at the time when blacks were being hosed down in the streets and attacked by police dogs, Thorpe said she couldn’t protest, but she could help.

“They needed food, drinks,” Thorpe said of the marchers.

Thorpe’s philosophy
Thorpe said she has stuck with a philosophy throughout her life.

“To render the greatest service I can to the greatest number of people. I want to make the world a better place as a result of my having lived in it.”

It’s a philosophy that just grew out of living, she said.

“There wasn’t any one thing that made me think that way,” Thorpe said.

“I hope I’ve done that. I think I’ve done that,” she said. “Nothing makes me feel better than hearing from students and other people how I’ve done something that impacted their life.

“I like knowing that I made a difference.”

Contact Rebecca Blanton at rblanton@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7984.