Retired fourth grade teacher Billie Larson participates in professional development training with her colleagues in the 1980s.
While the Mountain Home Education Foundation was unable to host its annual Hall of Honor induction ceremony last fall due to COVID-19, the Foundation’s Board of Directors did induct two retired Mountain Home Public Schools employees into the 2020 Hall of Honor.
The 2020 Retired Educator Honoree is Billie Larson, who taught fourth grade in the district for 30 years.
When Mountain Home area-native Billie Larson (née Deatherage) graduated from MHHS in 1959, she headed to Arkansas Polytechnic College to study Political Science, but she always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She graduated with her BA in 1963, but by 1964 she was back in college to earn her teaching certificate.
After an initial stint as a head start teacher in Norfork, she became a fourth-grade teacher in Mountain Home, where she stayed for 30 years. During those years, she taught on both the Guy Berry and Nelson Wilks campuses.
Throughout Larson’s career, she motivated her students but always kept a quiet spirit, which brought a calm feeling to her classroom. In 1984, her principal John Prysock wrote to Larson that he appreciated how she never made waves or caused trouble.
Prysock says, “All you do is conduct a great class in a quiet, thorough way. You are one of the strongest teachers I have ever seen, and I hope you stay with teaching.”
In 1973, Patricia Turner (née Kasinger) was Larson’s student. She loved spelling, social studies and English, and she felt comfortable learning and participating in Larson’s class. Turner says, “She was patient, and her kindness enabled a shy country girl to feel welcome in her class.”
Other students echoed Turner’s sentiments about Larson’s inclusive characteristics.
Gary Newton was Larson’s student in 1970-1971. During the year, he contracted viral pneumonia, which resulted in a weeklong hospital stay and several more weeks at home for recuperation.
Newton recalls, “Mrs. Larson had my classmates craft a get-well card which was delivered to my hospital room. And once I was home, Mrs. Larson personally brought my homework assignments to our four-room converted army barrack on College Street, north of what was then the junior high.”
Newton, who went on to enjoy a successful career utilizing the foundational writing skills he learned in Larson’s class, recalls a time she asked her students to write a limerick.
He says, “I chose to write mine about my beloved teacher,” he said. “But after following her directions to replace the first letter of the rhyming word with each letter of the alphabet, I quickly learned my options for ‘Larson’ were limited. And yet, I persisted.
She would have her poem:
There once was a teacher named Larson,
Whose enemy was Kit Carson,
As he hid behind the door,
He held a loaded forty-four,
Now over Miss Larson’s the parson
Newton adds, “Had I written that today, fourth grade likely would have ended that day. It was the first rhyme I ever wrote, and I was thrilled watching her read it. Memory or imagination or a little of both recalls a concerned look crossing her face as she finished, folded the loose-leaf paper, and carried the five lines to the teachers’ lounge. My parents may have even received a call.”
Even surrounded by student hijinks, Larson loved teaching, especially language arts and math. Her husband David, who she married in 1963, said his wife loved all her students, and they were her reason for teaching.
Newton says, “Teaching is what she wanted to do, and she kept at it and worked hard to make sure her students learned what they needed to know.”
Although she has faced some health problems recently, she has been busy and active since retiring in 1998. She and David have enjoyed countless hours of coin hunting and bass fishing.
David Larson says, “We traveled all over the United States metal detecting to find coins. “We spent a lot of time at Table Rock Lake. She is quite the bass fisherman.”
Time has a way of teaching its own lessons, and Newton believes he ought to pay penance.
Newton says, “Considering the concern I may have caused Mrs. Larson, after fifty years, and in honor of her induction, I owe her a rewrite.”
There once was a teacher named Larson,
Who taught in the era of Carson,
If learning were fire,
From hire to retire,
Mrs. Larson was a most wanted arson
Those interested in learning more about the work of the Mountain Home Education Foundation may visit MountainHomeEducationFoundation.org. Donations can be made in honor of Larson by clicking the donate button on the site or through mail to 2465 Rodeo Drive in Mountain Home.
Billie Larson 2: Billie Larson shows off a big catch during a 1974 fishing trip she took with her husband, David.
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