The community mourns the loss of beloved former educator Marie Downs, who impacted local students for close to five decades with her instruction, mentorship and love.
From the time she was only five years old, Downs always knew she would become a teacher.
For nearly five decades, Downs was the teacher who passed on knowledge, but she was also a friend both inside and outside the classroom. No matter where you turn in Yazoo, there are still former students who remember Downs, the teacher who made learning fun.
Downs was born on Aug. 14, 1943 in Sunflower County to Ed and Lavonne Kirkley. She was born inside the family home and would grow up an only child on the family farm.
“I was my Daddy’s only boy you could say,” Downs said, with a smile, in a previous interview. “We worked and played together. I was driving trucks and tractors by the time I was eight years old. It was all I knew.”
Downs’ father was an avid fisherman who loved hand grabbing. It was fishing that brought the two even closer together.
“Daddy tied me down with a sack full of bricks and jammed me in a hole so he could get catfish,” Downs said. “I didn’t know any better.”
Downs attended school in Indianola. She admitted she was a little bit of a rebel.
“I wrote on the bathroom walls, and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut,” she said, with a laugh. “But I loved school, and I had that school teacher personality.”
Downs can remember her first “student.”
“I was five years old, and I went to go see a movie,” she said. “When I got home, I sat my dog down and told her all about the movie. I would teach her about books because I loved to read. I knew I was going to be a teacher.”
Although Downs struggled with grammar, she had no idea it would be the subject she would later teach. She thought, at first, she would become a home economics instructor.
“My lowest grade was always in English, but I loved literature,” she said. “I thought if I went to college and majored in English, I would never make it. But here we are now. I taught English for 48 years.”
Downs would earn her Bachelor and Master degrees from Delta State University.
Downs began teaching at Leland High School. She was only 21 years old, a few years older than many of her students. She then decided to find a teaching job in the Yazoo City area. She had met Superintendent Harold Kelly at a meeting in Jackson, and he remembered her.
“On May 15, Kelly told me I had a job if I wanted it,” she said. “I didn’t even fill anything out. I eventually filled out my application after two years.”
Downs taught at Yazoo City High School from 1968 until 1992. She would then join the Benton Academy family and remain there until she retired in 2005.
“I always loved teaching,” she said. “I have former students who still like me. The kids and I got along well. Even the ones who maybe didn’t like me as a teacher are now my friends as adults. I was always a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of person.”
And Yazoo City was the place Downs developed close friendships with her students. It was home.
“We always had good students in Yazoo City,” she said. “In 1968, we were one of the top schools in the state. Granted things are not like they were years ago. But we still have some good kids here.”
Downs is most proud of sponsoring the debate team, the student council and the Academy Bowl at Yazoo City High School. At Benton Academy, she was the Academy Bowl sponsor, a tennis coach, a softball coach and the junior and senior class sponsor. She was selected as the Star Teacher for three years. And the BA annual was dedicated to her.
