This is a tribute to my great grandmother, Mary Alice Person LaSaine. I never knew her, but I miss her. I wish I had the opportunity to sit down with her and ask her about her history, my family history. You will never be forgotten.



Mary Alice Person LaSaine was born in Weldon, North Carolina to Thomas J. Person and Martha Vinson. She was one of eleven children.

Mary received her elementary and high school education in Weldon, NC. She earned a scholarship to Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia and graduated in 1904.

Her first teaching position was at Penn School on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina. After many years there, she accepted the position of supervisor of Gloucester County schools in Virginia.

She married Thomas A. LaSaine (a successful black carpenter) and moved back to North Carolina teaching at Roanoke Rapids and Selma. She continued to teach after her sons, Thomas Jr and Herman B. were born. She later adopted John Thomas, one of her sister's children.



Before coming to Charleston in 1917, Mary Alice LaSaine taught at Kittrel College in North Carolina. When a law was passed that married people could not teach, LaSaine relinquished her work at Shaw school on Mary Street in Charleston and was appointed, because of her outstanding record, the first and only Negro supervisor in the county system.

Selecting her own teachers, the new county supervisor constantly stressed self-improvement to her teachers urging them to attend summer schools and to earn degrees. She herself, worked many summers at South Carolina State College and received B.S. and M.S. degrees.

Great improvements occurred in the county under the leadership of LaSaine. The county district was reorganized, schools consolidated, and transportation facilities were made available so that children could get to school every day. Through her efforts, Lucille Gray (a Negro attendance teacher) was appointed.

In 1955, Mrs. LaSaine received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina. On June 10, 1957, the County Association's Alphonso W. Hoursey awarded her a plaque "in appreciation and devoted service..."

Among her many civic contributions was her work with the County Tuberculosis association Seal Sale and her success organizing the state and county in Negro Education Associations.

Mary Alice LaSaine died October 8th, 1957 from complications with Diabetes and was buried at Morris Brown Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina. She left behind a husband, and 3 children and one grand-daughter. That grand-daughter's name was Mary Frances LaSaine. The mother, of Reginald Vaughn Finley Sr. - The Infidel Guy.


NOTE: I later discovered that her son Thomas Jr (an atheist) later became a Medical doctor and Professor at Meharry Medical College. Dr. Thomas LaSaine was my grandfather. ~ His BIO ~

My family tree from Mary Alice LaSaine is here:
http://www.familyoriginstree.com/descend.php?personID=I43&tree=1

Details to her bio were added to assist genealogists in the future.