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Thelma Watershed Wair, who made history as one of the Little Rock Nine who integrated an Arkansas high school in 1957, died over the weekend. She was 83.
Wair earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1964, a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Sothern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIEU) in 1970 and an administrative certificate in education from the university in 1972. The university later inducted her into their Alumni Hall of Fame and awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2016.Â
Wair chose a career in education and was committed to community outreach, working as a home economics teacher and guidance counselor for East St. Louis School District #189, until her retirement in 1994. Her classroom efforts earned her the Outstanding Role Model Award, given by the East St. Louis Top Ladies of Distinction.
Wair’s history-making story began in 1957 with the other eight students: Melba Pattillo Beals, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Terrence Roberts and Jefferson Thomas.
The students integrated Little Rock Central High School three years after the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 declared in the Brown vs. Board of Education case, that segregated classrooms were unconstitutional.
Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus deployed the National Guard for three weeks to prevent the Little Rock Nine from enrolling in the school. This led to President Dwight D. Eisenhower sending members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the students into school on Sept. 25, 1957.