Mary Scales celebrates her best birthday ever on The Murfreesboro Post

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Mary Scales celebrates her best birthday ever

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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 3:19 pm

Mary Scales celebrates her best birthday ever | MCS

A surprised Mary Scales gets an oversized birthday card from students.

Mary Caruthers Scales received the surprise of her life Wednesday afternoon.

Scales was surprised by the Scales student body for her 80th birthday for her years of work on behalf of the children of Murfreesboro.

“I am so excited. This is the best birthday I’ve had because it came from the Scales Superstars,” Scales told the children after they sang “Happy Birthday” and presented her with handmade cards.

Click here to see a photo gallery.

The school was named in honor of Scales and her husband Robert “Tee-ninny” for their years of service on the city school board and Murfreesboro City Council, as well as their tireless dedication to the children of the city.

“We simple want to honor her and feel our pride in her being our namesake,” Scales Principal Catherine Stephens explained.

Scales has been described as “a champion for educational excellence” for her career in education, according to her 2001 induction to the Tennessee Teachers Hall of Fame.

Scales taught middle school math at Bradley and Bellwood before taking a job as the first African-American professor at MTSU, where she taught in the education department and served as associate dean of Continuing Education.

During her career as a teacher, she had an impact on many Murfreesboro children, including Murfreesboro City Councilman Ron Washington, who had Scales in the eighth grade.

“She helped prepare young African American kids in the early years and always stressed high achievement,” Washington said, adding she had a positive impact on every child she taught, including himself.

Washington’s sentiments are shared by Scales daughter Madelyn Scales Harris.

“She taught me to reach for the stars,” Harris said.

Scales said helping and encouraging children is the most important thing anyone could do in a lifetime.

“Helping children, that’s what is going to make America great,” Scales said. “They are the future and we should do everything we can to help them.”

As to her time on the city school board, Director of Schools Marilyn Mathis remembers a board member who had the interests of the children in her heart with every vote she made.

“We named the school after her and her husband, because they did everything to advance the welfare of the children in this city,” Mathis said.

“She’s said she wants to return to the school board and what an honor that would be,” Mathis continued.

Scales said she gets a special feeling every time she enters a school and wants to jump right back into the classroom.

“Whenever I see children,” she said pausing to smile. “Nothing could ever be better than this.”

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under MCS

Member Opinions:

By: Admiral on 9/25/08
Start including photos of locals written about so we can put a face with the story.

By: mikewest on 9/25/08
Hello, there is a photo of the event posted next to the story on the home page and a photo gallery of the event.

By: mikewest on 9/25/08
But Admiral, you are correct that we need to do a better job of that.

By: acdsrool on 9/25/08
If I'm not mistaken, Mrs. Scales was the first African-American teacher in the Rutherford School system...not just at MTSU. She was my 8th grade math teacher at Bellwood and by far one of the top educators this county has ever known. I doubt we'll ever see her quality of commitment again. The first day of class she told us what we could expect from her and what she expected from us. Respect for God, yourself, and others were high priorities!

Look up the word Christian and you'll probably find her picture beside it! As a 13 year old student in her class I never thought to ask her philosphy of life but I believe if I asked her now she would probably refer me to Matthew 22: 37 - 39. She certainly lives by those verses.

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Scales!