A teacher in local all black schools for 39 years, Odell Rouse began her career in 1926 in the Old Sixth Avenue School and ended it when the Ninth Avenue Union School (which had replaced the Old Sixth Avenue School) closed in 1965 as integration began. She once said the Ninth Avenue School was “like one big family.” She taught generations of some families taking care of their needs – from their quest for knowledge to their heat in school and even food and clothing.
2004 Education Hall of Fame
