Seniors In Action
Gifted Seniors: Mable, Lillian and Harold
By Ruth
B. Loving
The Springfield community is very fortunate and
should feel honored to have living among us African American seniors who have
worked long and fought hard for all of us.
Because of their efforts, we all live a better life than we did in the
40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. They were
trailblazers paving the way for the future.
For the balance of this year, I shall be writing about some of these
wonderful, gifted senior citizens. Mrs. Mable Sharif, Mrs. Lillian Lee
and Mr. Harold Clinton are three such individuals.
Mable Lene Johnson-Sharif serves with humility and leads with
integrity. Born Mable
Lene Johnson in Perote,
Alabama, to farmers and entrepreneurs, UL and Arkia
Johnson, Mable’s humble community and volunteer
service began at an early age. At the
age of six her parents taught her to help take care of senior citizens by
running errands for them, cooking, cleaning house and sweeping their yards. They told her that God would provide all the
pay she would need. Today, Mable continues this legacy of communal giving.
Since coming to Springfield in 1968, she
has served as a volunteer on many community committees and boards. Beginning with the PTO (Parent Teacher
Organization) at each school that her six children attended, she took a very
active leadership role. Other committees
and boards she served on include the Springfield School Volunteers, where she
was a math tutor and a participant in their Read Aloud Program, the Springfield
Neighborhood Housing Service and the City of Springfield Human Relations
Commission, where she was appointed a commissioner from 2000 through 2003 by
Mayor Albano.
Mable has also served as a member of the Western
Massachusetts Safe Kids Coalition, the American Heart Association Youth
Committee, the City of Springfield Violence Prevention Task Force, the Stone
Soul Festival Committee, where she was the chairperson for the health
activities, the Upper Hill Neighborhood Council, the Springfield Public Health
Month Planning Committee, League of Women Voters, NAACP, Urban League Guild,
the William DeBerry Elementary School Black History
Month Planning Committee, Pioneer Valley Project, Campaign for Fair Politics,
Arise for Social Justice, Million Man March Committee and the list goes on.
She is
the mother of six, grandmother of seven and caretaker of her 98-year old
mother. All six of her children
graduated from high school and five went on to college, producing a lawyer, two
correctional officers, a landscaper and music producer, police officer and
business manager. Mable
is a member of Third Baptist Church of Springfield and serves on the Pastor’s
Aide and Cultural Committee of the church.
Professionally,
Mable puts her career where her purpose is. She is the Community Outreach Coordinator for
Baystate Medical Heath Systems at the Mason Square
Neighborhood Health Center. Her
responsibilities include being the liaison for the Mason Square Neighborhood
Health Center community advisory board, promoting healthcare awareness and
ensuring access to good health to citizens throughout the city. Mable is a cum
laude graduate of Springfield College’s Human Services program. She resides in the Upper Hill Neighborhood of
Mason Square.
Lillian Jackson Lee is a Springfield native who was born at 51 Monroe
Street, in the then Winchester Square area that is now called Mason
Square. Her parents were William C. and
Elizabeth W. Jackson. Four girls were
born from that union in the same house where the Jackson family members lived
for more than 85 years.
Lillian
attended the East Union Street School that was replaced by the William N. DeBerry School built in 1951. Years later her three sons attended East
Union and her two girls attended William N. DeBerry. In 1927, she graduated from Technical High
School but, in spite of being a three-year honor student and receiving
recommendations from several teachers, she was not offered a job in any of the
Springfield businesses where her classmates were readily accepted.
In
1928, Lillian left Springfield to enter New York Teacher’s Training School on
St. Nicholas Avenue adjacent to City College in New York City. She was married in 1931 to Kermit J. Lee, a native
of Baltimore, MD, and an avid tennis player and swimmer, who was then employed
by the U.S. Postal Service. Living in
New York was very dismal in those depression years. Their first child, Ronald,
was born in 1932, and not being able to envision raising a child in an
apartment, the Lees moved back to Springfield and back to Monroe Street.
Mr.
Lee worked at the Hotel Kimball as a waiter and later as captain. Within a few years, he started as a guard at
the Third National Bank where he advanced to teller and then to branch manager,
retiring in 1974 from the Longmeadow branch of the bank.
A
second child, Kenneth Jr., was born in 1934, and then William Anthony joined
the family in 1938. A daughter, Judith
Patricia, was born in 1944, and their
last child, Deborah, was born in
1949. All of the Lee children are
college graduates, and in 1954, Ronald became the first Black person to
graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Lillian
worked at Forbes and Wallace part-time while attending night school. After taking the civil service test for a
junior clerk position in the school department, she proceeded to work in
different school offices throughout Springfield. She retired from DeBerry
Elementary School in 1975. Her husband
passed away in 1991, one year after the couple finally moved from Monroe
Street.
Harold Clinton was born in Springfield,
MA on
After
graduating from the High School of Commerce with a business degree, Harold went
on to graduate from Springfield Technical Community College in June of 1971
with a Police Science Degree. Prior to
1947, the City of Springfield had a Police Department that was made up 100% by
White officers. The Black leaders in
Springfield were determined to change this.
Joseph A. Budd, a Black man, scored the highest mark on the entrance
examination and was sworn in as a Springfield Police Officer in 1947. He was of good character, very intelligent
and a good “first” on the force.
In 1967 both Black and White supervisors urged Harold to
study for the next Sergeant’s examination.
He did and he wound up 4th out of a list of 90
candidates. He continued studying and
later took the Lieutenant’s exam and finished 6th out of a list of
40. Harold continued his climb within
the police force transferring to different departments, such as the Crime
Prevention Bureau and the Uniform Squad.
He finally retired from the Springfield Police Department in May, 1980
after 30 years of service. n