A 30-year teacher at the University of Illinois, Robert Hays has lived a successful life and authored some loved and important books. The White County native was at Kiwanis Thursday to talk about some of those books as well as the importance of encouragement at an early age. Hays was a 2nd grader at Walnut Grove.
When I was a 2nd grader at Walnut Grove school, my teacher was Mr. Carl Turner. I wrote some little short stories and passed them around to other students. Mr. Turner looked at them and I’m sure that teaching all 8 grades in one room with constant recitations and assignments and so forth and never a break, I’m sure that’s a tough job. I’m sure many teachers at that point would’ve said ‘throw this stuff away and get back to your arithmetic.’ Mr. Carl Turner read my stories; he liked them; he praised them and encouraged me to keep on writing.
That encouragement continued into high school and Hays began his career working on the school paper. He would learn he could make money writing features for the Carmi Democrat – Tribune and eventually would get some features in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
His life would eventually take him into the military and he became a close friend and collaborator in General Oscar Koch, himself a World War II intelligence chief for General George Patton. His publications include both non-fiction and works of fiction.
Learn more about Hays and his 16 works at https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B002SKIKDE/about.
Ronald Pollard
August 17, 2024 at 3:41 pmMr. Carl Turner was my 1st and 2nd grade teacher at Graham School just north of Brownsville. 40 students total in one room school. Mr. Clarence Myers came for my 3rd and 4th grades. Still had only one teacher. Fifth grade we moved into the new Brownsville Community Consolidated School District 15. 4 classrooms