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- [S8] Information from an informant - Auskunft eines Informanten - Information d'un informateur.
Proposed Change: Flora Childers (I162336)
Tree: Suedpfalz
Link: http://www.birkenhoerdt.net/getperson.php?personID=I162336&tree=1
Description: Floy Lydia Childers
BIRTH 14 MAR 1917 ? Broken Arrow, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
DEATH 11 JUN 2010 ? Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA
Jim Marshall
- [S927] Obituary.
biturary: A well-known educator and the matriarch on one of the Northwest's most creative families, passed from this world on June 11, 2010. Mrs. Pepper, 93, died peacefully surrounded by family and friends in the Beaverton residence of her son-in-law and daughter, Steven and Suzanne Henry. A Muscogee Creek Indian, Mrs. Pepper was born on March 14, 1917 in Broken Arrow, OK. Prior to farming, her father James Childers was a ranch hand with the young Will Rogers and befriended Geronimo, the legendary Apache Chief, who gave Childers Indian regalia that is still in the family. At the time of her death, Mrs. Pepper had been the eldest member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. One of the youngest students to earn a master's degree at the then Oklahoma A & M, Mrs. Pepper found work as a teacher at Fort Sill, OK with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There she met her husband, Gilbert Pepper, a Kaw Indian, who was employed by the same agency. Seeking a position where they could work together, the couple moved to Salem, OR and worked at the Chemawa Indian Boarding School. It was at Chemawa that Floy's lifelong resistance to the policy of separating Indians from their origins began. In her memoir, "Floy Lady," she had this to say: "As the arts and crafts teacher, I discovered that the Indian youth had no conception of the history of their tribes. I was finally able to help institute home rooms one morning a week where students were separated into tribal groups to study their historical heritage." As a home economics teacher for Portland Public Schools where she served for 18 years, her innovations continued when she pioneered sex education for seventh and eighth grade Portland Public School students, including classes for their parents. She became more interested in the area of counseling and guidance where, while taking coursework on student counseling at Oregon State University, Floy met Adlerian psychiatrist Rudolf Dreikurs. They became close collaborators and, along with Bronia Grunwald, co-authored Maintaining Sanity in the Classroom, a standard text in the field that has been translated into German, Greek, Hebrew and Chinese. Other publications included monographs for teachers and administrators on Effective practices in Indian Education, and a multicultural curriculum for the Portland Public Schools on Law Related issues of minorities in the state of Oregon, and a number of articles on education and Native American students. Mrs. Pepper also taught a Portland Sate University for (many) years in the Special Education Department where she became a major figure in the promulgation of Adlerian psychology, publishing a number of articles and helping create a Portland chapter of the Adlerian Society. She attended and taught for ten summers at the International Committee for Adlerian Summer Schools and Institutes in the United States, and European and Middle Eastern countries. In 1941, Mrs. Pepper gave birth to a son, James Gilbert (Jim) Pepper, destined to become one of the Northwest's most singular and celebrated musicians of his generation. Throughout his career, she became a surrogate mother to many musicians, including Gordon Lee, Tom Grant, and Ron Steen, of Portland.At the outbreak of World War II, Gilbert Pepper went to work at the Kaiser Shipyards and the family moved to Vanport, the community created by Kaiser Industries to house thousands of imported shipyard workers. Floy became Acting Director of the Vanport Nursery Schools. It was there that their daughter, Suzanne was born. Calamity was avoided when the family narrowly escaped from the flood that destroyed Vanport in 1948. On coming to Portland, Floy and Gilbert encountered frequent discrimination against Native Americans including problems getting charge accounts, bank loans and seat in restaurants. They found such overpriced car insurance that she wrote letters to the governor and newspapers. Governor Sprague had sent an investigator by Floy eventually drove to Vancouver, Washington, to get regular prices for insurance. Under the then Multnomah County Educational Service District, she worked as Head Teacher for the school program for emotionally disturbed children at Edgefield Lodge. She returned her attention to the education of American Indians with a 1973 speech at a cultural diversity conference entitled "Survival or Genocide: The Dilemma of Education for Indians." Her work included the development of a syllabus on American Indian education for the Portland School District and work as a consultant for many Indian educational organizations, including First Nations people in Canada. When conducting workshops throughout Indian Country she established time and again that the storied reticence of Indian students vanished when a respectful learning environment was fostered. Mrs. Pepper received numerous awards throughout her lifetime including: a Lifetime Achievement award from the US Department of Education; an 'award for service to Native American students from Portland State University Education Department; was named the American Indian Educator of the Year from the Portland Indian Education Association; the Ed Elliott Human Rights Award from the Oregon Education Association; and represented Native Americans on the National Committee on Minorities of the Council for Exceptional Children. She was noted as an outstanding educator and educational consultant in the 2000-2001 Who's Who of American Women.Mrs. Pepper was preceded in death by her husband Gilbert, who died in 1992, eight months after the untimely passing of their son, Jim. In addition to the already named, Floy is survived by nephews, James and Donald, Marshall and niece, Marilyn Marshall, all of California, Grandsons, James Pepper Henry and Jesse Laird Henry and great-grandson Jackson Laird Henry, all of Portland.
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1917 - 2010 (93 years)
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