Death of Eunice Byers breaks link in chain of history at Caddo Valley Academy
By Shirley Shewmake Manning
The last link in the chain of teachers who served Caddo Valley Academy Presbyterian Children’s Home at Norman, Arkansas, was severed Monday, December 15, 2003, with the death of 95 year old Eunice Byers of Fayetteville, Tennessee.
Caddo Valley Academy, (CVA) was owned and operated by the Arkansas Presbyterian Synod through its Home Missions Board. The home housed approximately forty students at any one time–half boys and half girls. There were three dormitories where the children lived and each had an adult supervisor, which the children referred to as a matron.
Eunice Byers came to CVA in the fall of 1931, to teach Bible. She also was responsible for holding a two-hour study hall each night for both boys and girls. After seven years at CVA, she left for three years, during which time she taught French and English in Tennessee, she spent one year teaching third grade at Pottsville, Arkansas, and another helping her college roommate with her three newly adopted daughters.
In 1941, she was again asked to come to Norman and CVA as Bible teacher, matron for the younger girls, and to hold study hall in the evenings. In the early years CVA only accepted children from the seventh to twelfth grades, but by 1941 any child of school age was accepted. Miss Byers stayed at CVA until it was closed in 1962.
In 1948, she took special courses to become a certified librarian. She organized and ran the Norman High School library, in addition to teaching. Bible was a required subject of all CVA students, but an elective to local residents. Norman was probably the only public school in Arkansas where Bible was taught.
After CVA closed Miss Byers occupied the former superintendent’s home for a year, then she moved into an upstairs apartment over the Presbyterian Manse, where she continued to live until she retired from Norman High School in May 1970. During these years she taught mainly English and Math, and continued to keep the library. In fact, Miss Byers was the only librarian the school ever had. She retired to return to Fayetteville, Tennessee to care for her mother.
During her thirty-six years as a teacher in the Norman school system Eunice Byers earned the love and respect of everyone who knew her. She was a kind, gentle, giving person who never, ever had an unkind word to say. Never did a negative remark pass her lips, and she always had a sweet smile, a word of encouragement and a prayer for everyone she met.
Miss Byers was often referred to by her peers as the most educated teacher Norman ever had. During her teaching career she taught Spanish, Latin, French, English, Math and Bible, as well as kept the library. She could also read and speak some Hebrew and German. Dr. John T. Barr, Jr., pastor of the Norman Presbyterian Church and founder of CVA often called upon her for help with the pronunciation of a difficult biblical name.
Due to an injury suffered at the age of five, Miss Byers walked with a limp and was required to have one shoe built up two to three inches, (making her almost five feet tall). During her latter years this old injury caused her considerable pain and discomfort, but she never complained. She had a hip replacement and two knee surgeries, in addition to eye surgery, but she never complained. In fact, the only complaint she ever uttered was that she didn’t get many letters from her Norman friends in her latter years. But, even that she excused saying many of them had passed on.
CVA housed over 600 students in its forty-one year history, and during that time a long line of matrons and teachers crossed its threshold. Miss Eunice Byers was the last living link in that chain. Many students still live in the Montgomery County area and all are saddened at the loss of their friend and teacher. Her students almost always refer to her as an angel, and each can recall stories from their days in her classroom.
Four of her former students, Cliff Tackett of Hot Springs, Andy Buck of Pea Ridge, Shirley Shewmake Manning of Oden, and J.W. Tackett of Smithville, TN, made the trip to attend her funeral and to show the respect and love she so deserved.
Eunice Byers was born in Lincoln County, near Fayetteville, Tennessee February 21, 1908 to Albert Byers and Essie McCulla Byers. The couple had lost their first born child and being devout Christians they prayed for another, vowing to dedicate the child to God’s service. Eunice Byers was that child and both she and her parents kept that promise, never, ever faltering for one moment, no matter how difficult the circumstances were. Her baby sister Clara was born a couple of years later. Then, tragically, it was found that her mother had TB and although her father moved her to Florida and Texas, seeking medical help, she did not improve and passed away March 11, 1912, at the tender age of twenty-seven.
Left with two small children, and a broken heart, it was a couple of years later before Albert remarried Minnie E. Good and brought his girls a mother, and eventually two other siblings. Eunice never thought of Minnie Byers as a step-mother, but only as mother. In 1917, brother Edward was born, and in 1925, the year Eunice entered college, sister Marie was born. Eunice Byers loved babies and in her young life she prayed to become two things–a missionary and a mother, not necessarily in that order. Her prayer was answered, though not in the way she expected. However, she always prayed that God’s will be done, and this was the case. She was sent as a missionary to a home mission school in Virginia, then to Arkansas, and in both instances she was given young children to care for as though they were her own. Her sister Marie said she would walk a mile to hold a baby, she was that fond of them. Had she been given the opportunity to become a mother in the real sense of the word many hundreds of children would have fallen short in their education and would have been deprived of her love, guidance, and Godly upbringing.
Near her fifth birthday, Eunice was running through the kitchen when she slipped on a piece of ice and fell. It was not known until many years later that she had dislocated her hip. Through the years the hip formed a new socket and this caused her pain and discomfort and the lifetime limp. Although she obtained some relief with chiropractic help she was never out of pain. After the 1950s, when arthritis set in, she suffered often and severely, though no one ever heard her complain. She lost her ability to walk, to see, and to read her beloved Bible, but throughout her life she retained her sharp mind.
Miss Byers made all the arrangements for her funeral and left handwritten instructions for those who would see that her wishes were carried out. She did not want to be “immortalized” for her life’s work as a teacher and life-long contributor to the church, home mission work, and hundreds of missionaries. This was not a cause for sadness for her, but a day of Joy. She had gone home to be with Jesus. 
Her official obituary is as follows:
Eunice Byers, 95, of Fayetteville, died Monday, December 15, 2003. A native of Lincoln County, she was the daughter of the late Albert Richard and Elsie McCalluh Byers and he loving mother Minnie Good Byers. She was a school teacher and had taught school in Norman, Ark., Roanoke, Va. She as a member of the Prosperity Associate Reform Presbyterian Church. Survivors include a sister, Marie Byers Callaway and her husband, David, of Pensacola, Fla.; eight nieces and nephews and several cousins. She was preceded in death by a sister, Clara Byers Robison, and a brother, Edward Byers. Funeral Services were held Saturday morning at Prosperity A.R.P. Church with the Revs. Charles Edgar and Dana Crowell officiating. Burial followed in Prosperity Cemetery. The family request that memorial donations be made to organizations that help children and evangelism. Higgins Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
She wanted no flowers and she directed that what little money she had remaining be sent to the home missions she had supported all these years. Her sister Marie specifically asked that those in Arkansas who wished to remember her loving sister, make a contribution to the renovation of the old Norman High School. Marie is donating what few pictures and other items which belonged to Miss Byers to the school. She is also donating Miss Byers Bible, which will be displayed under a hand-painted portrait of her.
As part of the renovation of the old Norman High School, it was decided some time ago that the library would be named the Eunice Byers Memorial Library and would house a selection of children’s books and materials. If anyone would like to make a donation to the library in Miss Byers name it may be sent to NHPP, Inc., Eunice Byers Memorial, P.O. Box 226, Norman, AR 71960. All memorials will be acknowledged and a sent to Miss Byers’ family.
This story appeared in the Montgomery County News,