Retired Atlanta educator had role in school integration process - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

Willie Easley spent his career in education and it spanned an important time of change in Georgia schools. For most of it he was a counselor to students.

Michelle Easley's letter to Good Day Atlanta was enough to make us want to meet her dad.

As she sat next to her father, she read a portion of the letter from her cell phone. "I can remember him working two jobs so that I could attend the college of my choice," said Michelle Easley.
    
There is more to her father's amazing story. In 1966, Willie Easley was just beginning a career in education. After a few years in an African-American school, he made a life-changing move.

"I was part of the integration process in Atlanta," said Willie Easley. "They sent me to an all-white school, that was my second job."

For Mr. Easley's nine grandchildren, segregated schools are the stuff of history books. But he remembers it well and calls the experience of integration "beautiful."

"All the teachers, all the principals were white, and in about two months I had won all the kids over. And some of them still call today," said Easley.
    
Hearing that story makes his daughter's letter so much clearer.

"As a little girl, my father told me to never quit anything," said Michelle.

Willie Easley didn't quit. The lives of his own kids and so many others are so much better for it.

"I just want him to know that I love him dearly," Michelle told her father.

With those words, Willie said, "She's gonna make my cry."

Mr. Easley has been married to his lovely wife for nearly 50 years. He says he saw his wife while he was a senior in college. She was a freshman. When he saw her, he said "that's my wife." They have three children, Michelle and two sons.

Read Michelle Easley's letter to Good Day Atlanta!

I am writing to tell you about my awesome dad, Willie Easley. 

I feel as though God has truly blessed me with an amazing father. He has been there for me through the many difficult journeys of my life. He instilled a strong sense of pride, character and integrity in me at an early age. I can remember him working two jobs so that I could attend the college of my choice. As a little girl, my father told me to never quit anything. His words stay with me, even today. When I face challenges and obstacles I can hear his voice saying, 'don't you dare give up.' He has held my hand in the hospital when I have had to undergo surgery and he has been with me during the celebrations of life. I am a single parent and he has always stepped up to help me with my children in any and every way. I believe even more important than the role he has played in my life, is the role he has played in the lives of other people. He has been a father to hundreds of others through his work as a public educator. He worked for more than thirty years as a counselor and retired from Mays High School in 1994. I often run across people whose lives he has touched. They tell me, ‘your father saved me', or ‘your father really helped me when I was in high school; had it not been for him I don't know where I would be today.'" (This is twenty or more years later.) I would like to thank and honor him for all that he has done and continues to do.

Thank you,
Michelle Easley