Just a “stop along the way.” That’s what Delbert and Mary Ballard originally thought about Quitman when they moved there in 1958. Delbert Ballard had accepted a job as a coach and teacher for Quitman ISD after working for Talco ISD for two years. 

Mary Ballard originally began her work life in a very different career, working in three tax offices. She had been given a scholarship to attend junior college after high school, but she didn’t have a car to get her there and back. She decided to join the workforce instead. However, Ms. Ballard had been inspired by all of her teachers over the years and wanted to become a teacher herself someday.

It took Ballard a few years to obtain her bachelor’s degree, but she eventually did and would later earn a master’s degree. She worked full-time and went to college part-time when she and Delbert had the extra money and could find people to carpool to school. During this time, she and Delbert also began their family. 

Ballard stayed focused, eventually earned her degree and began working at Quitman ISD as a sixth grade teacher. She taught at that level for a few years, but was moved to kindergarten when the person originally hired to teach that didn’t have all the required certifications.

Ballard said she was a little scared when the administration told her they needed her to teach kindergarten right before the start of the year. She became the first kindergarten teacher for Quitman ISD. She quickly grew to love her big classes of students in her small classroom. Ballard would spend over 20 years teaching kindergarten classes at Quitman before retiring in 2000. 

From Judge Tony Gilbreath, to Dr. Dee Dopson, to Athletic Director Shane Webber, Ballard spoke with pride of all the students she and her husband Delbert taught over the years at Quitman. Not only did the Ballards influence and inspire hundreds of students over the years, they also inspired their own kids, grandkids and other family members.

Ms. Ballard estimated 30 members of her extended family went on to become educators. All four of her own kids became teachers, and three of them taught at Quitman ISD.

Her daughter Chrystal Ballard is the DAEP principal and her granddaughter Ashlee Lingo teaches at the junior high. 

As much as the Ballards influenced the lives of others over the decades, they were forever influenced by historic events that happened while they were teaching. The Ballards experienced integration first-hand when the historic WB Clark School closed in the 1960s.

Ms. Ballard remembered a school trustee taking their family to a basketball game at the gymnasium at WB Clark School during segregation.

She said that she was nervous when integration happened because of all the uncertainty during that tumultuous time.

“It was quite a challenge,” Ballard explained as she spoke about the anxiety everyone felt. Ballard said that the QISD teachers knew the students from Clark felt uneasy about coming to Quitman because they didn’t know how they would be received.

The Ballards and other teachers did their best to make all students feel as welcome as possible. Ms. Ballard recalled telling a person during the integration process about being on the playground one day and feeling a little hand slip into hers. The hand was black.

The person said, “What did you do?” She replied, “I held that hand! I mean, what could I do? I loved him – and I did!” She said that she and her husband loved all their students, regardless of skin color. 

Ballard also spoke of another time of great transition in Texas teaching when the state passed laws that required teachers to pass a test to be certified and remain teaching. Ms. Ballard spoke of all the good teachers who quit the profession because they felt it was unfair to be required to take a test. Teachers who had taught for many years decided to quit rather than test for certification.

Ballard decided to take the test and continued to teach even though she did not agree with the state’s decision.

Ballard said that’s part of teaching. “Expect to do things you don’t always want to do. Be sure that you love people, and that you can put up with things that are not always what you want to do.”

Ballard said teachers must learn to compromise and work with legislators and administrators, as well as their students and fellow teachers. 

Ballard also voiced her concerns over current student testing and the push to make students read at younger and younger ages. As a long-time kindergarten teacher and as someone who didn’t learn to read until first grade, Ballard worries that having kids learn to read and learn sight words at such a young age may be unnecessarily stressful to the students, their families and their teachers. 

Ballard advises anyone thinking of becoming a teacher to be prepared to give of their time – and their family’s time. She said to expect to do a lot of work after hours and sacrifice time with family. She also stated that you have to love people even when they aren’t lovable because “you don’t know where they came from.”

Finally she advised that “sometimes you have to give in and sometimes you have to stand up” and that you have to know which one is appropriate for each situation.

On a personal level, Ballard said the best advice she felt she ever gave to a family member was to her daughter Chrystal when she was playing high school volleyball. She said Chrystal had come to her a little upset because she wanted to play on the front row. She never got the chance, though, because Kelly Kerr (Atwood) was the star of the front line.

Ballard told her daughter, “Well, honey, you and she together are one heck of a player! Sure, she can hit that ball down on the front row. But she can’t dig. You can’t hit it down on the front row, but you can sure dig.”

Ballard can still be found cheering on the Quitman Bulldogs at most of the football and even a few basketball games. She enjoys watching her grandkids Lawson and Scarlet Ballard participate in sports and band for Quitman. She also enjoys spending time with all eight of her grandkids and 11 great-grandkids, especially on their birthdays. Ballard also enjoyed watching her granddaughter Ashlee Lingo coach volleyball at the Delbert Ballard Gymnasium while Lingo was coaching.

However, as proud of Ballard Gymnasium as she is, Ms. Ballard said that the gym is 65 years old, and one “needs to retire at 65.”

Her husband was the first coach at Quitman to have a team play in the gym when it was built. Ballard would like to see a new gym built that students could enjoy for generations to come. 

When she’s not cheering on the Bulldogs, Ballard enjoys going to Faith Baptist Church, shopping and attending Kiwanis Club meetings.

Ballard said she hopes to be remembered “As someone who loves life. And I do. I lost Delbert, but found a new life with my daughters and grandkids. I want to be remembered as someone who loves people, and loves her preacher.”