Sue Humphrey was the first female principal in the Wylie school district, but that’s not why she is being inducted into the Wylie Hall of Honor.

Humphrey is being inducted because of her profound impact on the Butterfield School and the students who were educated there.

“She loved those kids at Butterfield,” said her daughter, Connie McCoy. “She taught there for 36 of her 38 years. She taught kids and their kids and their grandkids. She loved Butterfield.”

Humphrey was born in View but her dad moved his family around for work. She attended school at Wylie off and on during her childhood, and she graduated from Wylie in 1953.

She went to college at Hardin-Simmons University and graduated in just three years with a double major in history and English. She married her husband, Charles, shortly after and started her teaching career at Blackwell.

But after only one year, Humphrey got a job teaching 7^th and 8^th grade English at Butterfield, a small country school between View and Caps. At the time, Butterfield was part of the Taylor County School District.

Early in her career, Humphrey had to quit her job because of a difficult pregnancy, and she worked at Baird for a year until a position opened back up at Butterfield. She loved teaching.

“She had a real heart for it,” McCoy said. “It was so different back then. She trimmed kids’ bangs. She clothed them. It wasn’t just teaching. She would call the doctor and get them appointments. The stories she told – she should have written a book.”

McCoy said her mother cared about each child.

“She had a real heart for kids,” McCoy said. “She would say, ‘These kids might not be important to you, but they are somebody’s babies.’”

Humphrey wasn’t looking to get into administration, but when she was asked to be principal at Butterfield, she took the job.

“They just asked her to do that, and she did it,” said daughter Carolyn Gleason. “That’s what they wanted her to do. She probably opened doors she didn’t really know she opened. She opened pathways for other women.”

McCoy said her mother was always an independent woman and didn’t think much about working in male-dominated administration.

“I think mom was probably a feminist and didn’t know it,” McCoy said. “It was the job she was required to do, and she did it really, really well.”

Gleason said the men didn’t give her any trouble.

I don’t think it was as difficult as she thought it would be,” Gleason said. “They took her in as one of the guys.”

Butterfield consolidated with Wylie in 1978, and Stanley Whisenhunt, who was superintendent of Wylie at the time, said he never thought twice about keeping Humphrey as principal.

“She was the idea person to serve that school,” he said. “She knew everything that needed to be done. She did the job so well. She was a wonderful teacher, principal and individual. She was just the most considerate person you would ever meet. She was a great example for her students.”

Wylie Superintendent Joey Light, who was principal at Wylie Junior High when Humphrey was at Butterfield, said most people considered her a quiet, shy person, but he saw a different side of her on a trip to an administrator conference.

“She was a funny woman,” Light said. “She was just a wonderful person, and she was really funny. Most people would have never thought that about her. She was so unassuming. She would never say anything bad about anyone. She would just say, ‘My, my, my, my, my.’”

Bud and Jo Shelton, who are also members of the Hall of Honor, knew Humphrey very well. Mrs. Shelton worked in the Butterfield office for several years, and Mr. Shelton was superintendent at Wylie after Whisenhunt.

Mrs. Shelton said Humphrey was soft-spoken, which was perfect for working with young students.

“The kids just loved her,” she said. “She had a real soft voice. She did her job really well. She just tended to business. She was easy to work with and work for. She made it easy for everybody.”

Mr. Shelton said Humphrey was so dedicated to education and so well respected by her peers that her being a woman was never an issue.

“She did whatever it took to make education the number one priority,” he said. “She just did an outstanding job. She was such a dedicated person, you didn’t have to worry about people bucking her. They just didn’t do that.”

From its consolidation in 1978 until 1990, Butterfield housed Grades 1-6. The district took a year to remodel the campus and then in 1991, Butterfield opened as the 3^rd grade campus. The school later became the 2^nd-grade campus.

In 1995, Humphrey retired.

“She woke up one day and said, ‘I’m going to retire,’ and that was it,” Gleason said.

She said her mother was broken-hearted when Butterfield closed for good in 2006. In 2014, Sue Humphrey passed away at the age of 78 after suffering a stroke and blood clots in her lungs.

Her daughters say she would be honored to know that she is going to be forever remembered in Wylie’s Hall of Honor.

“She would be so thrilled and so humbled,” Gleason said. “Teaching was more than a job to her. This was mother’s passion.”

Mary Powell didn’t just teach her kindergarten students their ABCs and 123s.

For 25 years, she taught young Wylie students listening skills and social skills and how to love their neighbor. She let them learn about plants by working in a real garden and learn about math by cutting a pizza into eight slices.

“She always gave 150% to her students,” said fellow teacher Kim Hudson. “If they needed something for the classroom, Mary provided it. If they needed special attention, help, a listening ear or just an extra hug, Mary provided it. If the campus needed something, Mary was there. If a fellow teacher needed something, Mary was there. She could be counted on to go the extra mile for Wylie students.”

Because of that, Powell will be inducted into Wylie’s Hall of Honor at Homecoming.

Powell grew up in Anson and graduated from ACU. She is the sister of former Wylie mayor Gary McCaleb, and her mother instilled in her a love for children that had a big impact on her decision to be a teacher.

“I love kids,” she said. “And I wanted a profession that would allow me to also have time with my family. With the summers and the breaks, it allowed that.”

Powell met her husband Bishop while they were both teaching at what was then Madison Junior High. They married and then decided to move to his hometown of Ballinger. Powell had taught Home Economics at Madison and then Cooper, but the only job opening in the small town of Ballinger was in kindergarten.

The move proved to be a blessing.

“I loved kindergarten,” Powell said. “It was one of those things God took care of me. I ended up really loving the 5-year-olds. It worked out pretty well.”

She eventually left teaching to stay home with her children. She and Bishop moved to Anson for a few years and then decided to move to Abilene. They chose the Wylie area because of their love for small towns.

“What kept driving us was we both came from smaller towns,” she said. “At that point, Wylie was smaller. That attracted us. We were more comfortable with a smaller school system for our kids.”

So they moved into the Wylie area and sons Mark and John became Wylie Bulldogs. In 1991 when her daughter, Tara, started kindergarten, Powell returned to the classroom, this time as a kindergarten teacher at Wylie.

She was one of seven or eight kindergarten teachers at Wylie, and she taught in the old yellow building that used to be where the new ECC is now. Although she always taught kindergarten, Powell switched classrooms five times and campuses three times, as the district moved classes around trying to accommodate exploding enrollment.

Powell said she loved teaching 5-year-olds.

“I just liked being with the kids,” she said. “I think I learned as much from them as they did from me. They get so excited to learn. Every day is new. They are so quick to get hurt and get over it – to forgive and go on. And they give hugs freely.”

Lisa Salmon, who is now Principal at the ECC, said her son was in Powell’s class in 1998, and she was one of his favorite teachers.

“Her students loved her,” Salmon said. “She demonstrated patience and love with the students but at the same time she was firm and a top-notch instructional leader. Wylie was fortunate to have had Mary Powell to teach the students at such a young age because she created such a strong positive impact at the beginning of their school careers.”

Salmon said she enjoyed having Powell as a teacher at the ECC during the last four years of her career.

“Among the faculty, she was always a leader,” Salmon said. “The staff looked up to her and always considered her suggestions and opinions.”

Powell said she tried to help her students develop personally as well as academically.

“I wanted each kid to feel safe and that they were loved,” she said. “I wanted them to realize their own possibilities and strengths and at the same time that they aren’t perfect. I wanted them to feel good about themselves. I taught a lot of great kids.”

Powell said she always thought it important that children get hands-on learning.

“For a 5-year-old, they need a lot of hands-on play and discovery,” she said. “We had centers, most days. More kids would understand math easier if they would have more manipulative experiences. If you have a pizza and cut it into eight pieces, you might understand one-eighth.”

Hudson said Powell was instrumental in helping develop Gloyna’s Garden when the kindergarten was on the Elementary campus.

“She helped write grants, spent her own time shopping for what went in it, and spent her off time helping to build, plant and nurture the garden,” Hudson said. “Mary was also one of the teachers that started gardens at the old elementary school (now the ECC) where students learned about soil and growing vegetables.”

Powell also taught summer reading camps and tutored kindergarten students. She retired in 2016 to spend more time with her children and grandchildren.

“I felt like it was the right time,” she said. “I miss the kids, but I did not want to wait too long until I was not effective. It was time.”

Her husband, Bishop, taught English at Wylie Junior High for many years, and her oldest son, Mark Powell, is a country music singer, known for heading up Legends and Outlaws. Bishop plays in Mark’s band quite a bit, and their second son, John, also played with them for a while.

John’s wife, Jackie, teaches at Wylie High School and for a while, the district had three Powells teaching.

The Powells also are active at Southern Hills Church of Christ, where Mrs. Powell has taught Bible classes and helped with VBS.

Powell said she was very surprised to find out she was selected for the Hall of Honor.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I am very humbled. It is such an honor.”

Those who knew her at Wylie, however, aren’t surprised at all over the honor. Salmon said Mary Powell has impacted an untold number of lives.

“I have no doubt that having her as a teacher in kindergarten paved the way for success at school, academically, socially, and emotionally, as they progressed through their school years,” Salmon said. “A kindergarten teacher’s impact is felt many years beyond, and Mary Powell was the gold standard!

Mike and Jeannie Lunney built the Wylie band program into one of the best in the state and earned the love and respect of bands students and parents in the process.

So their retirements last spring came as a major surprise to the Wylie community. Their selection to the Wylie Hall of Honor, on the other hand, is no surprise at all.

“They are very deserving,” says former student and former co-worker Luke McMillan. “Mike is one of those superhuman people who you can go to, and they will always have the answer. Jeannie just had a genuine love for each individual student and would do anything for them.”

The Lunneys met while students at Midwestern State University and started their careers directing bands at different schools and commuting, before joining forces at Holliday.

Then in 1998, Wylie band director Louis Thornton retired, and Mrs. Lunney saw an opportunity.

“I was content in Holliday,” Mr. Lunney said. “Jeannie is the one who pushed me to apply. It was the greatest thing I ever did, but if it had not been for her pushing, I would have retired at Holliday.”

Austin was 4 at the time, and Mrs. Lunney said she wanted him to go to school at Wylie.

“Wylie had a great reputation,” she said. “It was a good school system. We knew Austin was going to be starting school. We did not regret any of it. He got the best education he could have gotten anywhere.”

Austin was also the reason the Lunneys stayed at Wylie when other opportunities arose.

“We could have moved up to a 6A band,” Mrs. Lunney said. “Austin was the reason we didn’t.”

Austin graduated from Wylie in 2012 and is now a second-year medical student at Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Although the Lunneys are now beloved by the Wylie community, they weren’t as popular during that first year at Wylie. Thornton had been successful and well liked. He was a hard act to follow.

One morning, the Lunneys woke up to find their yard full of  “For Sale” signs. Students had pulled realtor signs from yards all across town and put them in the Lunneys’ yard.

Mrs. Lunney said the resistance was tough at first.

“We were fought so hard our first year,” she said. “It was such a hard transition. I remember saying, ‘We will outlive them in this program.’ ”

McMillan was a senior at the time and remembers it well.

“For me, it was a dream,” he said. “Mr. Lunney came in, and he cracked the whip. He was like, ‘We are going to play music, and we are going to play it at a high level.’ I was like, ‘Thank You!’ You can see how it might have been tough for normal band kids.”

The Lunneys survived that year and went on to make a very good band program great. During their 19 years at the helm, the high school band earned Division 1 honors in Marching Band every year, extending a streak started by Thornton to 30 years in a row. Mr. Lunney also earned Division 1 ratings in concert competition 18 of his 19 years, and the Junior High band earned Division 1 ratings all 19 years that Mrs. Lunney directed it.

The Lunneys also took the band to State Marching Contest six times, including the last five opportunities in a row. (Marching bands can only go to state every other year.)

Prior to the Lunneys arrival, the band had only been to state once in its history.

But the Lunneys don’t consider those accolades as their biggest accomplishment.

“Those are all great accomplishments, but it’s neat to see the students who pursued band directing as a career,” Mr. Lunney said. “There’s a whole lot of them. I think that’s a cool thing. Hopefully, we had a little piece of that. It means a lot to us because our own personal directors meant so much to us.”

McMillan is one of those former students as is Michelle Lessing, who took over for the Lunneys in the Wylie band program.

The Lunneys said they tried hard to teach their students about more than just music.

“We were just trying to teach them how to be good citizens,” Mr. Lunney said. “We just wanted them to be great people, and we wanted to be a good example for them in how to do that.”

Mrs. Lunney felt so strongly about teaching good citizenship that she would have her Junior High band do community service each year.

“I wanted to teach the kids that there was more to life than them,” she said. “I wanted the kids to see the value of doing things for other people – it’s the right thing to do.”

She said she also tried to make the band an accepting atmosphere.

“Music was a byproduct of wanting the kids to always feel loved and that family meant everything,” she said. “We were a family.”

The pair also brought a strong work ethic to their programs and had high expectations for their students.

“I always said, ‘They might outscore us, but they aren’t going to outwork us,’ ” Mr. Lunney said.

Mrs. Lunney had a similar philosophy at the Junior High.

“She held her students to a very high standard and didn’t accept anything less than that,” McMillan said. “She expected nothing but excellence.”

Mr. Lunney also played an important role in making the band an integral part of the Friday night football experience.

“To impact the flow of the game, we had Luke write special music, called Dark Forces,” Mr. Lunney said. “The whole purpose of that was to be loud.”

The band became known for playing the music when the opposing team was facing critical 3^rd or 4^th down plays during a game. Last year, the band even drew a penalty.

“That was the highlight of my career to get a 15-yard penalty for playing too loud,” Mr. Lunney said. “That was a proud moment.”

Ironically, the fact that Lunney was committed to having a strong football band likely cost him the ability to ever win a State Marching Contest. UIL wanted concerts on the field, Mr. Lunney said. Other programs in the state were picking the best students and creating competition bands specifically to win the prestigious marching competition.

That wasn’t something the Lunneys were willing to do.

“It excludes too many people,” Mr. Lunney said. “As long as we could squeeze them in one band hall, we were going to keep it together. We didn’t want to take that dive and give up all we have.”

Mr. Lunney said they are very humbled to be selected for the Hall of Honor.

 “We just felt like we were doing what we were taught to do as band directors,” he said. “We just did our job. It is very humbling. It makes us proud to see the band, the culture of the band, the musical ability of the band. We want it to always be a big part of Wylie.”