By Tracy Gupton
I have always considered myself truly blessed to have spent the first six years of my educational life in the classrooms of such wonderful, devoted teachers who all sparked my desire to learn and increase my knowledge immensely. All of those classroom instructors — Rose Earle in first grade, Olive Grandstaff in second grade, Evelyn Welsch in third grade, Sam Earle in fifth grade and Ola Mae Reid in sixth grade — from my early days attending school at West Columbia Elementary School and Charlie Brown Intermediate passed away a long time ago. I miss them all dearly!
But it was my fourth grade teacher, Joyce Lester, who seemed like she would continue to be a part of my life forever. Yet, as we all know, all good things must come to an end and no mortal soul lives forever. Joyce made it to 95, an awesome accomplishment by itself. The obituary so beautifully written by her daughters that was published in The Facts newspaper earlier this week stated that Joyce’s love for gardening and working in her flower beds continued until “the age of 93 when she moved into an assisted living facility.”
The longtime West Columbia public school teacher passed away on Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Spring, Texas, surrounded by her loving family. A public viewing is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 10th, at C.T. Baker & Sons Funeral Home, 634 South Columbia Drive, in West Columbia, with funeral services planned to begin at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 11, 2024, at the Columbia Methodist Church, 315 South 16th Street, in West Columbia. Interment will follow the funeral at historic Columbia Cemetery where Joyce will be laid to rest beside her husband, former West Columbia Junior High School Principal Charles Lester, who passed away March 6, 1999.
I attended seventh and eighth grades at West Columbia Junior High School when Charlie Lester was the principal. I have always considered myself lucky to have sat in the classrooms of Joyce Lester and both Mr. and Mrs. Earle while also being a student on the campuses where Sam Earle and Charlie Lester were principals. Mr. Earle was the elementary school principal when I started school the fall of 1963 and had him for my fifth grade teacher when he left administration to return to the classroom. Mr. Lester had been an agricultural teacher at Columbia High School before moving into the administration field as the principal at West Columbia Junior High School.
I now serve as president of the Columbia Heritage Foundation Board of Directors which oversees the maintenance of the old junior high campus in West Columbia where both of my parents went to high school and my wife and I and all of our children were seventh and eighth graders. In recent years I always looked forward to visiting with my fourth grade teacher when Joyce Lester attended Roughneck Blowout class reunions with her daughter Eleese or made a well-received appearance at our mutual cousin’s (Ace and Kathy Brandt) golden wedding anniversary party at the Gusher Inn next door to Heritage Hall (the old junior high gym) a couple years ago.
Charlie and Joyce Lester’s younger daughter Nancy was my classmate from first grade through our graduating senior year in 1974-75 at Columbia High School. Joyce, Nancy and her siblings Eleese and Teddy Lester actually were cousins of my cousins Dolores and Peggy Lou Gupton and their children and grandchildren. My father Rex Gupton’s older brother, longtime district judge Thurman Gupton, was married to Gladys Stucker Gupton who was a first cousin of Joyce Lester. So, I grew up in West Columbia aware that my cousins were related to the Lester children so I, of course, being young and unaware, assumed that the Lesters were my cousins as well.
Beulah Joyce Webb was born November 26, 1928, in Three Rivers, Texas, in Live Oak County, the daughter of Riley Parks Webb and Beulah Mae Campbell Webb. Gladys Stucker Gupton’s mother Myrtle Webb Stucker, a longtime teacher on the campus where Heritage Hall sits today, was the sister of Joyce Lester’s father.
Joyce attended Southwest Texas State (now known as Texas State University) in San Marcos where she earned both a teaching and business degree. She was a school teacher for 32 years, teaching in grades kindergarten through eighth grade levels, with her final 10 years spent as a Title 1 teacher. “She loved helping her students solve problems and many times used her unique sense of humor to illustrate solutions,” it was written in her obituary.
“She loved to go fishing and, known for her luck, came home many times with twice the catch of family and friends” she was fishing with, it also stated in her obituary.
A little bit of Joyce’s luck must have rubbed off on me during the 1966-67 school year when I occupied a desk in her fourth grade classroom because I seemingly won the lottery by being placed in the rooms of so many wonderful teachers throughout my dozen years on West Columbia campuses on the elementary, intermediate, junior high and high school levels. When I began attending public school in West Columbia, students were segregated by race until I advanced to the fourth grade. Mrs. Lester was teaching Black students for the first time in the fall of 1966 when I was one of her students. Harold Tolbert and Margo Diggs were the first Black children I shared a classroom with, and Joyce Lester couldn’t have been a better teacher to deal with this social advancement transition. Harold and Margo are cousins who remain to this day among my classmates who have now been out of high school 49 years that I think the highest of. I can recall the integration period in West Columbia schools that happened over 55 years ago like it was almost yesterday. Joyce Lester was a remarkable teacher and an even better person.
Following her retirement and the passing of her husband Charlie Lester, Joyce and her second husband, Ralph Warne, got involved with volunteer work. Together the Warnes helped restore and maintain while also giving tours of the historic Ammon Underwood home that still sits along the banks of the Brazos River in East Columbia.
In addition to her husbands Charlie and Ralph, Joyce was preceded in death by her parents, her son Teddy Lester, her brothers Riley and John Webb, and her sisters, Louise Mohan, Clarice Pearl Clark and Ruby Earle Bostick.
Left to mourn her passing, along with the many, many friends Joyce had, are her daughters, Eleese Lester-Baier (and husband Richard Baier) of Houston and Nancy Gillett (and husband David Gillett) of Sydney, Australia; her precious granddaughters, Heather Irving (and husband Ben Irving) and their sons Liam and Noah of Austin, Texas, and Lesley Gurney (and husband Dave Gurney) and their daughters Scarlett and Savannah of Sydney, Australia; and her grandson, Brendan Gillett (and wife Caroline) and their daughter Mila of Sunshine Coast, Australia.
Condolences for the family may be left at www.ctbakerfuneral.com.