What is in a name?
At Jackson Public Schools, each campus bears a name that honors notable figures in the district’s history.
The names were selected to pay tribute to those who have supported the district throughout the years.
For instance, McLeod Elementary School is named for Florence native Clara James McLeod, who was born December 21, 1903.
McLeod decided to become a teacher early in life. She pursued that career through her education at Millsaps, Belhaven and Mississippi State College for Women.
She continued with post-graduate work at Millsaps, Tulane University, George Peabody College for Teachers, University of Colorado, University of California at Los Angeles and Mississippi College, where she earned her master of education degree.
McLeod’s education career began with her teaching first grade in Picayune in 1924. She taught in Cleveland and Ackerman before beginning her work with Jackson Public Schools.
From September 1928 to June 1946, she was a first-grade teacher at the Thomas P. Barr School. She later worked at the Nannie C. McWillie Elementary School when it opened in 1955, until her death in 1960.
As a whole, she worked 35 years in education, 32 of which were at Jackson Public Schools.
Casey Elementary School gets its name from Hattie Aileen Casey. Casey, a Hollandale native, attended both Hillman and Mississippi Colleges and did graduate work at the University of Alabama, Millsaps, Peabody, Belhaven and Columbia University.
Her teaching career began at Friar’s Point. She began teaching at Power in 1921.
Casey retired in 1959.
Mary Lee Boyd is the namesake for Boyd Elementary School.
Boyd, who was born in 1874, was a teacher in the Jackson Public School system for 32 years.
She graduated from Central Mississippi Institute with highest honors and began her teaching career in Lenago, Miss.
She taught in Madison County, Starkville and Aberdeen before coming to Jackson Public Schools.
Boyd began her work in Jackson in 1913, when she came to Central High School. She was the head of the history department from 1913 to 1936. She served as chairman of the social studies department from 1941 to 1943.
Chastain Middle School gets its name from James Garvin Chastain Jr.
Chastain attended Mississippi Heights Academy at Blue Mountain.
He became the superintendent of the high school in Derma after his graduation from Mississippi College in 1915.
He served as superintendent in Eupora and Leland Consolidated School District after World War I.
Chastain was named superintendent of Jackson Public Schools in 1933. During his administration, the Jackson Municipal Boys’ Band was organized and the Reserve Officer Training Corps was established at Central.
The namesake for Murrah High School is William Belton Murrah, a Pickensville native.
Murrah attended Southern University, which is now Birmingham-Southern, in Greensboro, Ala.
He earned a doctor of divinity degree from Centenary College in Jackson, La., in 1887. He also received an LL.D. degree from Wofford College in South Carolina.
He has pastored Methodist churches in Oxford, Winona and Aberdeen. From 1886 to 1890, Murrah was vice president of Whitworth College at Brookhaven.
He also was the first vice president of Millsaps, serving from 1892 to 1910. In 1910, he was elected Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
