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Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

Favorite Teachers

September 22,1992

Lake City people like to talk about their most memorable teachers.
Bertha Terry

Gen. Bob Harkness, Columbia High School class of 1920, remembers Bertha Terry, his
fourth grade teacher who gave him “a switching for talking too much.”

Bob says, “Lucy Simpson introduced our senior class to solid geometry - never before offered
at CHS - and bullied us into passing.”

Evelyn Mixon
Vera Kilgore Heilig, a renowned poet now living in Lakeland, graduated from CHS in the

1930s. She remembers teacher Evelyn Mixon.
“Evelyn Mixon started the CHS school paper ‘The Columbia High Tiger’ and had it printed

in the Lake City Reporter every Friday. She encouraged me to write a lot of articles and I did.”
“Words had always fascinated me. I was amazed to learn that there are words that mean

exactly what I want to say. There is a lot of Evelyn Mixon in every award I have ever received.”

Sam Eff
June Chapman, CHS class of 1932, has high praise for instructor Sam Eff. “Not only was

he a fine teacher, he took a personal interest in us both in and out of school. I recall he had a STARR
automobile which he named ‘Stella’ - who says Latin is a dead language! - and he drove us to many

school activities out of town.”
Sam Eff had good reason to be so dedicated to CHS and Lake City. As a young teacher

seeking employment, he was turned away by six other Florida towns because he was a Jew, before
finally landing a job at CHS.

Doretha Burgess

Tonita Orr remembers Doretha Burgess as her favorite teacher and coach. “Coach Burgess
taught us chemistry and coached our Richardson High Lady Wolves basketball team to several state

championships. Be sure to say that she was not only the best coach, and she was also the BEST
LOOKING coach in Florida.”

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