Seven aMAYzing Siblings: The Children of Howard “Friday” and Goldie Turner May and their Family Teaching Tradition
The late Howard “Friday” May and the late Goldie Turner May had seven children. Although the seven are unique individuals and highly accomplished in various ways, one thing stands out: all seven have been teachers in one way or another. Many of their ancestors on both sides were teachers. Their great, great, great grandfather, Lorenzo Frederick Smith I was a Hessian soldier who remained in the area after the Revolutionary War had been a teacher. Their grandfather, Lee May, was the first teacher at the Cullers Run School near Mathias, West Virginia around 1898. Their paternal grandfather Ben Turner had six brothers and one sister who were teachers. Their mother Goldie May and four of her siblings were teachers. Their father, Howard “Friday” May had 4 siblings who were teachers. Although none of their children has chosen the teaching profession so far, the three brothers all married teachers!
The oldest sibling, Lois May Rhodes, attended Bridgewater and Madison Colleges to earn her teaching credentials at age 18. Her first teaching assignment was for grades 3,4, and 5 at Cootes Store, where she was also responsible for making fire in the coal stove to heat the classroom, sweeping the classroom and oiling the floor when needed, and washing the chalkboard. When Cootes Store School closed, Lois taught at Broadway Elementary for three years. Lois earned her credentials to teach high school by taking off a year for full-time classes and attending summer school; she began teaching U. S. Government and English at Broadway High School in 1959. In 1993, she participated in a teacher exchange program, going to Peterhof, Russia, to educate students there while living in primitive conditions. Altogether, Lois taught 40 years! Lois now stays active doing volunteer work.
Nancy May Hoover, the next sibling in birth order, owned and operated “The Beauty Spot” in Broadway for 36 years. True to her family teaching traditions, she trained some beauticians in her shop who went on to pass the state board examinations to become professionals. She also taught Sunday School for 15 years. Nancy was the first woman to serve on the Board of Directors of Shenandoah Valley Electric Coop, and received the Leadership award of Virginia Maryland Delaware Association of Electric Coops (WMDAEC) in 2003.
The third sibling, Phoebe May Orebaugh, was also a teacher at Broadway High School. She graduated from high school at age 18, and from college at age 19 (by taking extra classes and summer school.) Phoebe taught U.S. History, U.S. Government and French at Broadway High School, and also coached basketball a few years. She has fond memories of her French classes and the songs she taught them in French. (Occasionally a student will see her and sing one of the songs to her!) She ran for the General Assembly in 1982 where she served until her retirement in 1991, representing the local area. She has fond memories of meeting Ronald Reagan while in the General Assembly. Phoebe states that she “sometimes felt it difficult to deal with family members in my classes. They were about the same age as I was!”
Joseph “Joe” May has also been involved in teaching in different ways, and still works as an engineer. Joe graduated from Virginia Tech in 1962 with an electrical engineering degree, and he has 26 technical patents. He recalls giving a lecture to his Broadway High School Physics class when asked occasionally to do so by his teacher Margaret Martz. He was a lab assistant for Samuella Crim’s Chemistry class, and sometimes presented to his class on lab procedures. Joe designed an instrument that the DuPont company sold to gasoline refiners all over the world; he would go to an installation and teach a 40-hour course on the instrument. He also sold electronic equipment, and taught the customers how the equipment worked. He has worked with several firms designing instruments and teaching about them. His company, EIT, LLC: Creative Design-Innovative Engineering, developed the “Yellow First Down Line” that one sees on football events on tv. Joe is currently presenting some new ideas on disinfecting using ultraviolet radiation to use to mitigate the COVID virus to NIST and other groups. He got his helicopter license at age 73, and has already patented two instruments for helicopter safety as he found flying helicopters “challenging (real scary!) Joe expects to work until age 90 “and then I’ll do something else. Like learn to write.” Joe also served in the General Assembly for 20 years representing primarily Loudoun County.
Benjamin “Ben” May is a self-taught musician who learned “Chet Adkins style” guitar picking and played the banjo. He was also a talented athlete at Broadway High School in football, baseball, basketball and track. He started teaching string music lessons to private students as a way to make a living, and at one time taught 30 students. Several of his former students went on to become award winning musicians. One of his former students, Spencer Hatcher of the Hatcher Boys, wrote a song “The Ballad of Ole Ben May.” Ben was in a band with Clint Miller for about 30 years. He says “it is very rewarding for entertainers to acknowledge that you had helped them with their career in music.”
The youngest son is Stephen “Steve” May, who was a three-sport athlete at Broadway High School and graduated from Bridgewater College, where he was also a three sport athlete (football, track, and cross country). Steve was a school counselor at Thomas Harrison Middle School from 1971 to 2005. He also taught at John Wayland Middle, Turner Ashby High and Harrisonburg High. He was head track coach at Turner Ashby High School for 5 years. Steve served as head cross country coach at Harrisonburg High School for 17 years, and an assistant track coach for 30 years. He was also an administrator of track events. Steve says about his counseling career: “The gratifying part of the job is that 20 or 30 years after the fact you meet students who can tell you verbatim what you said to them after all of those years…You know you have had an impact on that person because they remember what you said.” Steve is now a sheep farmer.
Deborah May Proctor is the baby of the family. As the youngest, she grew up with six older siblings who wanted to be sure she spoke correctly and behaved well. She says “As a first grader I began teaching my classmates to use correct grammar and behave, which was not always appreciated. In eighth grade, she knew that she wanted to teach Music when she helped an older boy struggling in her high school class. She also helped her mother with math when Goldie returned to Madison College to get her teaching certification; Deborah learned “new math” in her Algebra classes at BHS taught by Joe Jones. When a contestant in the Miss Rockingham County Fair beauty contest at age 14, she answered the question of what she planned to do after graduation by saying “I plan to become a teacher because the ‘disease’ runs in my family.” At age 14, she started teaching piano lessons. She decided to major in math after she realized how many night concerts and weekend work music education entailed. She first taught Math at Central High School in Shenandoah County, then taught Math at Stonewall Jackson High School. In 1975, she was given a year off to go back to college to get certification to teach music. She taught music one year part time at her alma mater Broadway High School. Then Deborah taught in Prince William County (Gar-Field High School) from 1978 to 2003. She worked as a mentor to new music teachers for 7 years after retirement. She continued to work in music and helped found a summer music conference called “Voices United.” In 2008, Deborah received the Sidney Swigget Award for contributions to choral music in Virginia.
Much more interesting information about the amazing May siblings is out there; one could write an article about each of them. Or perhaps one of them will write a book. (After all, Lois is a published author! And Lois, Phoebe, and Joe wrote several articles in the CRC about the Veterans Exhibit at Plains District Museum.)
