| Accompanied by a large contingent of news writers and photographers, Mrs. Johnson and her party were in Canada community for some two and a half hours.
On arriving at Brown's Store in big commercial buses, the group transferred to school buses for the two-mile trip to the Eldon Mathis home. There was about a quarter-mile walk from the main road to the house from where buses stopped.
Mrs. Mathis, when she had heard that America's First Lady was planning to be in the community, wrote her an invitation to visit her family.
Mrs. Gertie Moss, Canada School principal, rode beside Mrs. Johnson on the school bus trip to the Mathis home. They kept up a constant conversation.
Mr. and Mrs. Mathis and their seven children were standing out in the yard when Mrs. Johnson and her party arrived. Mrs. Mathis' mother, Mrs. Minnie Alexander, stood in the doorway.
"It's so good to see you," Mrs. Johnson said, shaking hands with each member of the family.
"It's good to see you," Mrs. Mathis replied. "You all come in."
Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Moore and Secretary Gardner went into the house and were seated. They talked about television, gardening, the creek near the house, the National Teacher Corps.
"We're proud to have our children in school," Mrs. Mathis told Mrs. Johnson. "The Teacher Corps is grand. The children like the ones at school. We met them when we were up there at a meeting one night."
Mrs. Johnson noticed the TV set in the living room and Mr. Mathis said he watches Mr. Johnson when he is on television "just the same as if a program was going on."
Mrs. Johnson asked which programs the family liked best. They told her Daniel Boone and Cheyenne. The First Lady told them her favorite program is Gunsmoke.
A drawing of a red-headed woodpecker by one of the Mathis girls caught Mrs. Johnson's attention and she inquired about who had drawn it.
One of the boys, Earl, a fourth grader who was on crutches due to sustaining leg burns when he was helping his father cut wood with a chain saw and it got hot and caught fire, told Mrs. Johnson he was a 4-H Club member. She asked him what his projects are, but he replied, "I'm just a new member and haven't started one yet."
Mr. Mathis asked Mrs. Johnson if they have a garden on their Texas ranch. "We put in corn so we can have corn all the time," she told them, adding that "most of the time we have some tomatoes."
They told her they have a garden and some of the things they grow in it, including corn, cabbage, beans, tomatoes. And Mrs. Mathis explained that all the children have chores.
Mrs. Johnson asked whether there are trout in the stream that runs by the house.
"Yes," Mr. Mathis said. "And we catch some. Mountain Trout." And he explained it is called Nettys Creek, and told her how it got its name.
Mrs. Johnson asked the children what fun they enjoyed most at school. Wanda, a freshman at Camp Laboratory, answered singing, dancing and sports, like kick ball.
Mrs. Mathis explained that all of the children catch the bus at the same time every morning. "We get up around 4:30 or 5 and the catch the bus at 7."
The children are Marie, a junior at Camp Lab High; Wanda, a freshman; Earl, Arlene, Una Lee and Rose, all pupils at Canada School, and Talmadge.
When it was time to go to Canada School, the Mathis family was invited to go on Mrs. Johnson's bus. On their arrival at the school, pupils sang several songs, including "How Do You Do, Mrs. Johnson, How Do You Do?" "America" and "Nothing Could Be Finer Than To Be In Carolina In The Morning."
Mrs. Moss then called for attention and formally welcomed Mrs. Johnson. "We are certainly happy you are with us," Mrs. Moss said. "We feel like what you are doing will stay with the community and will help us broaden and strengthen our program. We are delighted to have you."
Mrs. Johnson spoke briefly.
"A visitor to Canada is touched by the beauty of these hills: the pine trees, laurel and rhododendron, climbing up the mountain; Big Bear Lake, smooth and peaceful, reflecting the trees and the sky. Before your eyes is the parade of seasons. Winter lays bare the strength of this region and its beauty," she began.
"Canada - like many other communities - has problems which a visitor can miss: problems which only education can solve," she continued.
"Like the curious bear, in the rhyme, I've come over the mountain to see what I can see - to see how dedicated teachers are working to brighten the hope of Canada - and our whole country. I hope that some day, when you young people graduate from Canada, you'll go down the mountain to see what you can see - go down the mountain to high school and perhaps to college. For there is no more useful or profitable work you can do than the work of learning."
"Because your community, your Government and your President feel strongly about the work of learning," she explained, "the Teacher Corps has come to Canada - and I have come to see the Teacher Corps and you. For Canada shows, in a special way, the purpose and promise which the Teacher Corps holds for the Nation."
"(Today) I got a little insight of how hard it can be to go to school," she said, leaving momentarily a prepared text, "One little boy walks two and a half miles to get his bus. You really have to want to go to school to do that."
"Last year Canada School had four teachers - four heroic teachers to serve 100 students in eight grades," she continued. "This year, because of the Teacher Corps, Canada has doubled its teaching staff to eight. And for the first time, men are teaching in Canada School."
And then she noted she had brought some "apples for teacher." Golden lapel pin apples symbolizing membership in the Teacher Corps were presented by the First Lady to Team Leader Mrs. Geneva Ramsey and Teacher Interns Franz Whitmire, Willis Wellman and John Reid.
"The real story of this day is not that a great many reporters and officials from Washington came to visit Canada, for we can stay only an hour or two," concluded Mrs. Johnson in her address. "The real story is that these dedicated teachers have come to Canada - and they can stay for many hours, days and weeks. Their work is helping to change this community and this whole country."
She added that "ever since our folks have been coming down here we've been getting glowing reports about this school, the children and particularly Mrs. Moss."
And then she turned and presented some books for the school library, about the White House and presidents.
After her talk, a group of students presented a square dance for the First Lady. Mrs. Johnson patted her foot and clapped her hands.
Mrs. Moss then recognized Mrs. Moore, who said, "It is always wonderful to be home again," and Secretary Gardner who said, "I love your dancing, your shining weather and the whole spirit of the place."
Mrs. Johnson was then introduced to the teachers and pupils. The First Lady presented each pupil with a pen capped with a yellow rose of Texas.
In the introduction line, she noticed many students wearing 4-H patches, and she never failed to ask each what his or her projects are. "Four-H is really big down home," she told one student. "It can mean so much to a community.
A first grader, Peggy Owen, presented Mrs. Johnson a colored bean-and-corn art work of a red rooster.
After meeting all the pupils, Mrs. Johnson went inside the school and visited several classes taught by NTC teachers. In the first one she observed Wellman using an overhead projector in reading, when Evelyn Melton read "the story for the day."
In Reid's classroom, one group of students listened to tapes (Secretary Gardner had a headset on and commented: "it's Tom Sawyer.") while another read with a "controlled reader," reading 250 words a minute.
Reid explained that some of the eighth graders could read up to 800 words a minute.
"You all certainly do have a lot of aides," Mrs. Johnson told Mrs. Moss. "How do you do it?"
"We get them through Title I, II and III of ESEA," Mrs. Moss replied.
One of the interns, Whitmire, then gave demonstration of an unsung side of his work - a barbering demonstration. He gave Bobby Carroll Owen, 8, a GI haircut. Mrs. Moss explained that "we live so far back up here we don't get to the barber shop often." But she added some of the boys have their hair cut in town. Whitmire said he averaged cutting about four or five a week.
Mrs. Johnson had lunch in the school cafeteria with last year's Head Start pupils. The menu included roast beef, creamed potatoes, green beans, tossed salad, cake and peaches.
Upon leaving, Mrs. Moss presented Mrs. Johnson a live rhododendron plant for the White House grounds. She told the Mathis family goodbye and went over to Mrs. Moss: "You are just a jewel to this community," Mrs. Johnson said. "God bless you."
At WCC
Congress in the past three years has enacted 18 measures to advance education, "not for some, but for all Americans," because there were just too many "ifs," declared Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson in an address at Western Carolina College Tuesday afternoon.
"Over the years," she declared, "perhaps the sharpest single distinction between America and the other nations of the world has been this: we have regarded education as a right, not a privilege. Through free, public education, we have helped all men to rise to their fullest measure. But for too long, public education in America provided a good, free education - if a local school board could raise enough funds for enough teachers; if you lived in the right section of the nation; if you were born into the right race; if there was a good library nearby. Until recently, there were just to many Œifs'."
With over 5,000 persons packed into Reid Gymnasium and other hundreds outside for lack of room, she termed interns in the Teacher Corps "the cutting edge of the educational process." Earlier in the day she had been to Canada School where three NTC teacher interns work.
"These teacher corpsmen - and their 1200 counterparts across the nations - are...transmitting knowledge and feeling and love on a one-to-one basis, to children who need those bright keys to unlock their promise."
And they are not alone, Mrs. Johnson continued, one of the greatest tributes which can be paid this college is this one fact: that 65 per cent of the teachers in the mountain counties of North Carolina are alumni of Western Carolina College.
She pointed out that the concept of national help for education began as early as 1785.
She dedicated the new wing (under construction) of Hunter Library and unveiled a plaque, which read in part: "Hunter Library Wing, Dedicated By Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson."
"Today we are celebrating something more than an array of bricks and mortar called a library; something greater than an attractive building; we are celebrating the function of both libraries and books: for books are the magic carpet of the mind," she stated.
"There was a time when a library was viewed as a cold storage locker for books; a time when the watchword of the librarian was ŒSilence Please'," she said.
She noted that "your wonderful librarian," Mrs. Lillian Buchanan, "has nurtured the Western Carolina Library for three decades. She has helped it grow from early infancy to early adolescence. Because of her efforts, it is a library whose policy is to get books out, not to get books in; to get students in, not keep them out."
Mrs. Johnson pointed out that five years ago the federal government spent $88 million to help libraries, and it has grown to $700 million for this year.
"This growing effort has touched a thousand and more communities in America: on campuses like Western Carolina; in public libraries in cities and towns; in isolated communities that are visited by bookmobiles; in the slums, where individual classroom now have their own libraries of paperback books," Mrs. Johnson said.
Regarding federal aid to education, she said: "The grade school students of Canada Township receiving help from the Teacher Corps; the children in remote hill towns sharing the wisdom of a well-trained teacher from Western Carolina College; a child in Harlem who is helped by Head Start - these young Americans are not receiving ŒBig Government' or a Œhandout' or Œbureaucratic control' from Washington. What they are receiving is a chance: the same chance that many other Americans have had for generations: the chance for self-improvement which made America great."
"So what are we celebrating today?" she asked. "A building, yes. Bricks and mortar and books? Yes. But more important than that, we are celebrating the very existence of this place. For Western Carolina College means that books and students come together. It means that somewhere a student and a teacher come together, and the miracle of education can occur where it would not ordinarily have happened; a window can be opened; a citizen can get a chance."
WCC is one of 53 colleges in the nation (only one in North Carolina) serving as a Teacher Corps training center. Dr. Ray Sizemore coordinates the work in four mountain counties, including the NTC program at Canada School.
The wing of the library dedicated is being paid for in part by a $158,694 federal grant.
Jonathan Woody of Waynesville, chairman of the WCC Board of Trustees, accepted the plaque for the trustees, President Paul A. Reid and other officials.
Secretary Of Heath, Education and Welfare John W. Gardner, presented by Dr. Reid, termed poverty, ignorance, racial discrimination, physical incapacity and mental illness as tyrants that can knock a child from the world of learning.
"The very heart of what we believe in as a people is the fulfillment of the individual," Secretary Gardner said. President Johnson, he said, has put this effort at the top of the national agenda. "The success of a program does not depend on what goes on in Washington but out here where teaching and learning are taking place," he concluded.
At the assembly, called to order by WCC Student Body President William H. Upchurch, Jr., opened with the College Band playing the National Anthem. Mrs. Billy Graham gave the invocation. Mrs. Johnson was presented by Mrs. Dan K. Moore.
President Reid welcomed the guests and recognized a number of distinguished platform guests, including Governor Moore's representative, Woodrow W. Jones and Mrs. Jones; Congressman and Mrs. Roy A. Taylor; Mrs. Buchanan, librarian; Mrs. H.T. Hunter, wife of former WCC president Dr. H.T. Hunter for whom Hunter Library is named; WCC trustees; and members of the 1967 General Assembly.
Several groups seated in the audience also were recognized. These included county commissioners, Southwestern North Carolina Economic Development Commission board members, board members from Four Square, Macon Program For Progress and Mountain Projects.
Editor's note: This is the weekly installment of a review of our back issues as The Sylva Herald and Ruralite celebrates its 75th anniversary throughout 2001.
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Teacher Corps intern Franz Whitmire cut Canada School student Bobby Owen's hair in March 1967 as Lady Bird Johnson, wife of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson, watched. The nation's First Lady visited Jackson County to get a first-hand look at the newly-formed Teacher Corps and to dedicate a portion of Hunter Library on the Western Carolina College campus. Whitmire received his teaching certification through Teacher Corps and went on to a distinguished education career in Jackson County. He currently serves as one of five county commissioners. Also pictured are one of the First Lady's bodyguards, left, and the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare John Gardner.