Miss Ruby and Her Pretty Pink Pastel Library
The irony is that there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing “brown” about Brown Elementary. It sparkles.
The principal, Serenity Luckett, shines when she shows off her school. The students beam when they greet you. The new PTA officers glow when they explain how they are putting in new resources in the new Parent Center.
But nothing would prepare you for Miss Ruby. Her parents were prescient in bestowing this particular name upon their little girl. The woman is a precious gem.
She’s the school librarian. And she was running to a meeting when we arrived at Brown Elementary in Jackson, Mississippi on our Back to School Tour. She was not so patiently waiting for us when someone told her we were starting with the little ones on the first floor.
“Oh, no you’re not. You’re starting with me,” she said. It wasn’t a request. “You need to start with the library so I can show it to you before I have to leave for a meeting. There is no way you are leaving this school without me showing you my library.”
Well, ok, why not, I thought. She and I left the others and went upstairs to a converted classroom and she opened the door. And oh… Oh, my. Oh, the pinks and the reds and the yellows and the blues! Oh, the colors that popped and spilled and exploded over the books and posters and art and magazines and toys.
I’m not sure there is such a school library in the whole wide world as beautiful as Miss Ruby’s Popping Pink Pastel Library. I ran downstairs to get the rest of the Back-to-School crew. I needed documentation. They have cameras and microphones. They walked in and gasped.
Miss Ruby just glistened like the jewel she is. Her smile told us that she’s seen this reaction before. “It’s something, isn’t it?” she asks us. We just giggle. There are no words. It’s breathtaking.
There are two lawn chairs in the back of the room next to the puppets. I suggested we sit down. I wanted to hear her story.
“This is my last year at Brown,” she says. “I’m retiring. This is the second time I’ve retired, but this time it’s probably for good.”
Miss Ruby went to college to become a librarian, but something had her turn in another direction. She became an accountant and worked for Ford Motor until she retired. Then she thought about that library she’d always wanted to run. She applied for an opening at Brown Elementary as the school librarian.
The principal back then showed her the empty classroom that was being used as the school library. It had grey shelves. It had beige walls. It had a black carpet.
“Now that carpet still makes me mad,” she told me. “Who ever thought a place that should be the heart of a school Miss Ruby and Her Pretty Pink Pastel Library - Lily's Blackboard: