teaching students at The Hewitt School how to build a library. It was great fun and she will be missed. xo

Rev.Bobby O.MCarroll,D.D.(youngest of the five children) 
My first trip to the "Big City" began friday-nite with a long soaking/bath in the tub,followed by an early bed time. 
Excited, saturday morning started with dressing in my short-pants and long stocking outfit, not forgetting to put vasaline on my face, elbows, knees and on my new patten leather shoes.        
The long walk from our house in Elizabeth, N.J, (a blue-working-class street- changing into a Black middle-class communiy) to the train station, up the rickied stairs and onto the wooden platform all added to the anticipation/fear of a nine year-old, following his older sister into (what my mother would say was "God only knows where".
The view of the engine spitting out smoke,the feel of rotting seats on by bare legs,the dirty windows, the deafening noise of the wheels on the tracks didn't bode well as we desended into the long black tunnel, under the Hudson River.

 Tighly cluching Vernell's hand, we made our way though the ant-hill of Grand-Cental-staition. Scurrying in all direction were more people than lined the parade-route in Elizabeth on the 4th of July.

Our first stop was Radio City Music Hall. As we waited for the elevator, I asked
"why do we have to sit in the balcony like we do at our local movie?" Her answer was " the differrence is that this is New York and were are going to sit in the mizzanine". 
The Rocketts (showing more under-clothes than was pictured in my Sears-catolog, under my bed) danced and kicked high.The movie screen seemed a block long and two stories high kept me tranfixed for hours.

Horn and Hardy was our next stop. Five nickles and the slot opened to a beef pot-pie, which was eagerly, devoured      

   Off Broadway, the marquee read... Paul Robeson in OTHELLO !!!.
I didn't ask Vernell if my mother knew that she had named my brother after a famous character, but knowing moma, I was sure she was completely aware.
 Good seat helped me to settle down.
In hushed tones came three quick tutorals:
  "Bobby, it's theater...not thee-ate-a'
 This is the story ..line and what is going to happen
 Now sit back and enjoy!!!
Who was this gaint, black man with a voice so deep that the sound made me shake..But not so much afraid that it stopped me from leaping to my feet and yelling  "Othello...Othello..she didn't do it..like that man said".        
A gentle but firm hand pulled me back into my seat, as I cried.
At His second curtin call, the lights came up and this hulk of a man leaned from the stage and said "I hope that the critics are as convinced.". 

Stepping out into the evening and looking skyward at a thousand/million points of light, my teacher/mentor directed journey of enlightment and learning began for me a life-time of  "wondering as I wandered".
As a Biblical teacher/Pastor for more than fourty years, I have hoped and constanly watched for that moment (as Vernell also did) when the lght of understanding/revelation shown in the eyes of my family, friends and students.
"We all dance to the tune we have been shown, but there is one dance we must
all dance alone"  author unknow
.
 Maranatha.....amen,,,amen REV.22:20                                               

Verne taught me many things, but most of all, she gave me the knowledge that a woman can be strong and powerful as well as straightfoward and assertive. This is one of my greatest lessons from her. Thank you, Verne. May you rest in peace and look over us with your love.

I've known from the first e-mail from Peggy that this would be an historically memorable and emotional experience for all of us: 
alums, teachers , alums who are parents of alums and two or three generations of New Lincoln People.

I see Anne Zuckerman and her child in the audience and I must give her a hug before I can continue. We've worried and prayed for her ever since we learned that she was in the earthquake in Chengu. Now she is back on home soil and safe.

IN 1917, just as World War 1 was ending, the founders opened an experimental and progressive school named after the great Emancipator: Lincoln .. Its purpose was to solve some of the problems of what we teach and how we teach and how children and teens learn.

The debate still rages in the land but you are the heirs to what was great about that experiment.

Today you and I and your teachers, look back at all the permutations wrought by the century; for the Lincoln and the New Lincoln Schools have a genealogy as interesting and complicated at that of the Tudors or Stuarts we once studied here.

This educational experiment shone brightly in the 50's when we joined the nation's history with direct participation in the legal solutions to our national integration problems.

In the 60's major social turbulence and political crises reared their ugly heads in our world, our nation and our city. these caused us to evacuate this facility for a safer home on the eastside. It caused the state to sieze the facility by eminent domain and establish this place.

When Peggy asked me about the building I had forgotten where my classroom was. But the class of 1960 had made its yearbook cover a drawing of students rising through the building in the elevator.. It was a rendered slice of the building. And a few days ago I looked at it carefully and saw I had written in a corner: 705. That was our core class. And I want to see it again. Today.

You will find in private conversations why so many of your teachers accepted your invitation to return and you will remember the fine moments of their youth and their remarkable craftsmanship, their humanity and academic substance Most are all here by first names and they will see you in their academic bailiwicks as we move around the building. All of them are personally memorable figures in their own right.

Now that we are here and see what has been wrought, don't call it a jail! don't called it a prison! What we see here in some ways reflects a mission which is humanistic too and a teaching institution in so many ways similar in objective to ours.

Something quite marvelous must have happened here to require all the other classes to join you 68ers. To appreciate dare I say . . . even Hallow this ground. This is the incubator in which you learned who you were and whom you could or would become, And you are here forty years later!

Some of you have parents who were part of the early childhood of the school; some of your grandparents played a role in New Lincoln's adolescence and its long term and fiscal survival.

These classes have assembled after traveling many main streets and byways, and there is magic here in the moment, testing what we taught and what we learned and what we all questioned.

So much has happened since we separated.. We see the political changes shifting around us at this very moment. You've seen an election we couldn't imagine or covet in our youth. Our families and alums were then in the forefront of now current communications, film and technology, authorship, teaching and all of the fine arts, medicine, law and international political writing. Whenever I read a newspaper or magazine or visit the web I have looked and found your names and faces. 

As for me I have two secrets to tell you about

I got my name the first week I came to New Lincoln to teach. Dr Brooks (Sylvia's dad) asked: "What do you want to be called?" I had been known as "V", and "Mac" (My maiden name was Mc Carroll) and even known as "Nell". Before I could respond he said "Why not let us call you Verne?" Everyone here seemed to have had a short name..

So I became and remain Verne, pleased at that decision he made for me since he was a remarkable person and administrator,.

Finally what do I feel at this very moment: among you: When I was a young thing my foreign language was German and I was a great admirer of Goethe's Faust, the drama and the opera. There is the bargain between Faust and Mephistopheles and Faust must lose his soul if there is ever a point in which things are so intensely, overwhelmingly beautiful that he asks the moment to continue. This is such a moment for me now...
I am not going to make a bargain with Satan but this is a moment in my life in which I will say what Faust says:

"VERWEILE DOCH, DU BIST SO SCHOEN."

Remain fair moment you are indeed so lovely.

What a reunion!!!!!

I am Kevin Blythe Sampson, The oldest of the Grandchildren.

Aunt Vernell, First off we never called her Aunt Vernell, we always called her Aunt Nellie. My brother Ronald (deceased) started this after having problems saying Vernell as a child and it just stuck.

Aunt Vernell how do you describe your most indescribable relative. Aunt Vernell was the family treasure chest of Education, class and of Culture. She was the one that took us to see plays and movies; she was the one that introduced us to exotic foods, New York and its higher culture.

Aunt Vernell was our line in the sand, our most tall hero, the person that we all aspired to be.

I am an artist, Aunt Vernell gave me my first paint brushes, and she introduced me to Jacob Lawrence and Romaine Bearden. She encouraged me, no inspired me, will me to make big steps with broad strokes.

As I grew as an Artist and person and begun traveling around the country, the first person that I would call was Aunt Vernell. I would describe to her where I was staying, what my artist talk would be about and lots more. I could say that I called her to share these things with her, but I really called her for the strength that I needed to make these small changes in my life and my profession. I needed to hear her voice, I needed to hear her resolve and in all of these cases I took this with me as a shield as a sword that cut through the obstacles that I faced.

Aunt Vernell introduced me to smoked Oysters and Cavier, which we shared a love for along with Coleslaw and barbeque.

Aunt Vernell sent me books and magazines for all of my life, she did the same for my children Jason and Lauren. When my son Jason wanted to be a chef, she brought him cooking utensils and cook books. When my Daughter Lauren was job hunting, she always called Aunt Vernell first and when my daughter became a Director Aunt Vernell smiled as if she always knew.

At the end of most conversations she would end it with her signature line “marvelous”. I am convinced that no one in the world can say it quite like she did. Believe me I have practiced saying it for most of my life and I am not close to its perfection yet.

When I go out into the professional world there are two people that I change into, one is my father Stephen Sampson the other is My Aunt Vernell. They are the twin pillars of my strength.

Aunt Vernell told me again and again, to my surprise and shock that the two people that she admired most in the world were my father Stephen and Her Mother Valerie. She admired the fact that they both came from the Deep South and that they both did so well “in their stations in life.

Marvelous

I am not too sad that Aunt Vernell has passed, because if she was unable to work, to give back and to grow then she is better off going to that much better place. Where she can remake the library of heavens and search out new students while keeping her eye on all of us old ones.

I will spend the rest of my days perfecting Aunt Vernell “marvelous” it will become my chant, my mantra my spirit animal. I am not sure that life is long enough to do it, but as Long as I keep on trying, then I am doing what Aunt Vernell always asked me to do.

Read, learn, grow and prosper

I don’t believe that people die, not really

For I am my father

I am Aunt Vernell

Now and forever

I hope that all of my spelling and grammar is correct because I know she is watching

It was the fall of 1978 and Verne called me into her office.  Not knowing why, I was a little apprehensive, although Verne was one of the most approachable people I had ever met even to this day, but she also packed a verbal wallop that could definitely give you an intellectual bruise and make you think twice, or even three or four times in the future about ever doing something again.

What had I done? Was it the pie in the face incident (some of you do know what I am talking about)? Was it the fact that I have been skipping Spanish? How about cutting and going to the park? What did I do? Being one of those people who never got caught, but certainly had her share of indiscretions. Well a multitude of events was going through my mind. It could have been numerous things.

When I entered she asked me to sit down. So I did. She asked me, " Why aren't you going to math class?", now I knew what it was and I simply replied I hate math. 

She was quiet for what seemed like a minutes, but was probably seconds. And I think I remember her eyeglasses (did she ware eyeglasses?) in her mouth. She was looking out the window behind her desk, she turned and she said do you know that you got 780 on your Math SAT and 720 on your English SAT?

Well you could have knocked me off that chair by simply blowing on me. I think my mouth was became a black O.  She asked me how I did  it and I again simply said, Verne, I have no idea.  Honestly, I never studied for them and the day Whit Springer and I went to take them, we were goofing off all morning beforehand. I really didn't know and I did not even try. This was my first time and I hated tests and I thought well see how you do and then take them again if you don't do well.  


We spoke for a while and she explained that the SAT's were based on math reasoning and having had the opportunity to get to know me over the past year she said I had the capacity to reason my way out of or into anything I wanted. That this one tool would serve me well throughout my entire life. It was probably the most inspirational commentary regarding my being I had ever heard.  It has stayed with me throughout my entire life. I have had many difficult years since then, but what Verne said helped me get through them and survive and I have used my reasoning throughout everything that has happened.

Well considering my SAT's she waived Math for the rest of the year and I graduated High School without having to take Math for the next 8 months, but it is her words and counsel that was the real and true treasure for me.

I have not had the opportunity to speak with her in years, but my love and heart is with her and her family at this time. What an extraordinary woman and a jewel for this earth.


XXXOOO