A Familiar Smile in a Familiar Place: Barbra Gatewood Has Spent a Lifetime Serving Morton’s Children
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CITIZEN OF THE MONTH
By Cheryl Owens
Mississippi Spirit
Some people leave their hometown looking for a new place to call home. Others are fortunate enough to find everything they need right where they started.
For Barbra Lloyd Gatewood, Morton has always been home.
She was born and raised in Morton, attended school here, graduated from Morton High School, married, raised her family, and eventually found herself working at Morton Elementary School — the same school that helped shape her own childhood.
Sixteen years later, she is still there, greeting students, parents and visitors with the same smile she hopes everyone remembers.
Gatewood is the daughter of Ida Lloyd and the late W.C. Lloyd. She grew up in Morton and graduated from Morton High School. She is married to Charles Gatewood, and the couple has celebrated 30 years of marriage.
Together, they have two children, Jeremy (Frankie) Lloyd and Cody (Karem) Gatewood, and six grandchildren — Jeremy Jr., Charlie, Kaislee, Imani, Jules and Royalty.
Her roots in the community run deep. Gatewood attended Pleasant Gift M.B. Church under the leadership of Pastor Reginald McCoy, and her love for the people of Morton has remained a constant throughout her life.
So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when the opportunity came to work with children at Morton Elementary, Gatewood knew it was where she wanted to be.
“I was excited to become the secretary for Morton Elementary School because I love kids,” she said.
Before becoming the school’s secretary, Gatewood spent 13 years as a teacher assistant. In all, she has been part of the Morton Elementary family for 16 years.
And while the title of secretary may sound like a job that involves answering phones, keeping up with paperwork and sitting behind a desk, anyone who has ever walked through the doors of an elementary school knows there is much more to it than that.
For Gatewood, one of the most important parts of her job is helping make sure each day runs smoothly for the school’s administrator and staff.
It is a job that keeps her busy, but one she wouldn’t trade.
“I love my job because we have a great staff and a great community,” she said.
And then there are the children — the very reason she was excited to take the position in the first place.
For Gatewood, the most rewarding part of the job is something as simple as seeing a child’s face light up.
“The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces as they come and go each day,” she said.
Over the years, those children have grown up right before her eyes.
Gatewood has watched students walk through the doors of Morton Elementary as little ones and later see them again when they reach Morton High School. What makes those moments especially special is that many of them still remember her.
“I’ve watched kids leave Morton Elementary as a kid and come back to Morton High School as a teenager, and they still remember my name,” she said.
That says a lot about the kind of impression a person can make without ever realizing it.
For many children, the school secretary is one of the familiar faces they see throughout their elementary years. She is there when they walk in each morning, when they need help, when their parents come to school and when they head home at the end of the day.
For parents and visitors, Gatewood wants that same sense of comfort.
“When parents and visitors visit Morton Elementary, I want them to feel welcome,” she said. “I always greet them with a smile.”
That smile has become part of who she is — and it is also what she hopes people will remember most.
When asked what makes Morton Elementary special, Gatewood didn’t hesitate.
“We have the best staff,” she said.
For someone who has spent much of her life in Morton, perhaps the best part of Gatewood’s story is that she has had the opportunity to give back to the same community that helped raise her.
She knows what it means to grow up here. She knows what it means to walk the halls of a Morton school as a child. And now, she gets to be one of the familiar faces helping today’s children feel at home.
After 16 years at Morton Elementary, Gatewood has become more than the person behind the front-office desk. She is a familiar face, a welcoming smile and a connection between generations of Morton families.
And if you ask her what she hopes people remember about her years at the school, her answer is as simple as the smile she gives every day.
“I hope that parents and staff remember the smile that I always have on my face.”
In a town where everybody seems to know somebody — and where generations often grow up together — that smile may be one of the things people remember for a very long time.
