Lucille Smith Thompson, 105, of Como, shares her birthday, July 6, with her  great-great-great niece, Kaylyn Ciara Bridgeforth, age 2.

They were born a century and miles apart and Kayln’s world will be much different from the one Mrs. Thompson knew, her great niece, Ernestine Lomax Bridgeforth  of Como, said.

Mrs. Thompson, a retired school administrator, was born in Marianna, Ark. in 1904, one of 14 siblings. Her father and three of his brothers had moved from Booneville, Miss. to Marianna, Ark. and bought 300 acres of Delta bottom land. There they raised corn, cotton, cattle and broom straw.

Their grist mill ground cornmeal for the family and others in the community.

Mrs. Thompson finished high school at Arkansas A.M. and N. College in Pine Bluff. At the time black colleges operated private black high schools because there were few public high schools available for black students. Parents had to pay tuition for the high school education.

Mrs. Thompson received her bachelor’s degree at Rust College and  her master’s degree from Tuskegee Institute.

She began her teaching career as an elementary teacher in Marianna, Ark.

She married Henry S. Thompson and moved to Marks, where she lived for 62 years.

She taught at the junior high school in Lambert and was appointed Jeanes Supervisor, consulting and assisting the students and teachers in the rural black schools in Quitman County. She held the position, similar to a superintendant of schools, for 19 years.

The Jeanes Fund, which provided financial support for the training and operation of this network of supervisors of rural black schools, was established by a wealthy Quaker woman, Anna T. Jeanes of Philadelphia, in 1907.

The Jeanes Supervisors were promoters, administrators, and supervisors, and made sure these rural schools received    books (hand-me-downs), fuel (coal and wood) and anything else needed for the operation of the schools from day to day, Mrs. Thompson’s niece, Ernestine Bridgeforth, explained.

Many of these Jeanes Supervisors became Civil Rights activists, Bridgeforth said.

Eventually the Jeanes Supervisor position  was eliminated and schools were consolidated.

Mrs. Thompson became principal at West Side Junior High School in Marks where she remained until she retired in 1974.

She has traveled to almost all of the states of the United States, not including Hawaii and Alaska.

She never liked to fly, Bridgeforth said, but if her car would go, she went, even to Canada.

She served on the Executive Board of Delta Burial Association, was secretary to the Quitman County Democratic Executive Committee and served as treasurer of  the Quitman County Hospital Auxiliary.

She was secretary of the Heroines of Jericho and was a member of City of Marks Beautification committee.

She loved to read, do crossword puzzles, play the piano, travel and go to church.

Her favorite saying is “I must have done some good for someone during my life time because God has given me a long, prosperous life.”

Failing health has caused her not to be able to do the things she enjoys most.

She is a 25 year breast cancer survivor and now makes her home with Mrs. Bridgeforth in Como.  Kaylyn is the great-granddaughter of Mrs. Bridgeforth.