“Children are basically the same. They want your attention.

“Children are basically the same. They want your attention. They want you to love them and they want I to please you,” said Dorothy Butler. 1 ‘That’s the way they were 34 years i ago. That’s the way they were last ,] year, and that’s the way they’ll be 34 ■ years from now!” I

Sitting in the shade on the back I

patio of the neat-as-a-pin brick ram- j bier, sipping sweet iced tea, Mrs. f Butler hardly looks old enough to be I a retiree. Without a gray hair or a J

wrinkle, she could be anywhere over | 30: the twinkling gleam in her eyes I subtracts from the estimate; her I calm, patient manner and the wisdom in her unlined face make the guess a little higher.

A native of Rappahannock, she began her teaching career in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, at a private school outside Pittsburgh. Marriage to Howard Butler brought her back home. They had met at the Manassas Industrial School, where black teenagers from Rappahannock went during the days of segregation if they wanted to continue their education past the elementary level.

And when Mrs. Butler returned to Rappahannock, it was to teach from 1957 to 1968 at a segregated school. That “separate but equal” institution was the Washington Graded School. It had two classrooms. Mrs. Butler had first, second, third and fourth grades in one room while Mrs. Julia Bodey had fifth, sixth and seventh in the other. “It was really rewarding,” Mrs. Butler recalled. “I loved those kids. I spent most of my time working with the first graders, getting them started. The children were our assistants,” she added. “The second graders helped the first graders, the third graders helped the second graders and right on up the line.”

The integration of public schools that caused such turmoil elsewhere in Virginia was accomplished in Rap(See

BUTLER, page 14)