Another great article in the Bryan Times. Congratulations, Connie!! Salisbury taught with love Connie Lashaway decided that maybe she would be a teacher. What she wanted was to work with children, and teaching seemed a fine way to do that, if she couldn’t be a pediatrician. “My father was disgusted (with the principal) and said I could do whatever I wanted to do, but down deep I felt like if my principal said it, it was probably true,” she said. “Now I would fight that thought, but back then we just believed what we were told,” said Salisbury, who spent 36 years teaching in the North Central Schools. Born to Earl and Fay Lashaway, Connie Lashaway Salisbury grew up in Liberty Center with her three older brothers, until she was 10 years old. Hillsdale County, Mich., was her home for the rest of her childhood years and she graduated from Camden-Frontier High School in 1964. “I have great memories of my childhood,” Salisbury said. “We lived on a dairy farm and all of us had to work as there was always work to do on a farm. “I remember complaining because I had to help outside and inside and that was unfair. My brothers didn’t have to help inside! Dad said that someday I would thank him.” The family had Jersey show cows and traveled many miles in Michigan and Ohio to show them. She and her brothers learned “how to get your hands dirty and keep going because life goes on. Mom always packed picnic baskets of food and we had fun,” she added with a smile. Another aspect of her childhood that she remembered, “Mom and Dad always expected us to get our work done but always allowed time for play. Dad built a softball and baseball field that even had a backstop and our neighbors would come over and play. “I don’t know how my mom did it, but it seemed like she was always feeding lots of people. Every Sunday we would all go to my Grandma Lashaway’s house and play horseshoes and tag and go swinging in the barn.” In her family, “all” meant her father’s ten siblings and all their children. Time with her cousins was loved and well spent in hours of play. Following high school, Connie pursued a teaching degree at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., which at the time was known as a teacher’s college. Not long after she had gotten her middle/high school teaching degree and was in graduate school, she received a call from North Central Schools in Pioneer. School officials had called to ask if she would come for an interview to teach first grade Title 1 reading. “To this day, I don’t know how (the superintendent) got my name, “ Salisbury said. “He never would tell me. I’m not sure why.” Outside of her career pursuits, Connie married her sweetheart, Larry Salisbury, on June 17, 1967. They had met at 4-H during junior high and he was a good friend of her brothers. They had two children, a son born in 1973 and a daughter in 1976. In the early ‘70s, Connie split time teaching in Kunkle and Pioneer. Due to another outdated concept, she had to take a year off when her son, Shane, was born, because of a board policy that did not allow pregnant teachers. From 1970 until she retired in 2005, she taught full time at Pioneer. Over the years she has taught first grade Title 1 reading, junior high and high school physical education, and first, second and fourth grades, but she spent the majority of her career as a third-grade teacher. Connie officially retired in 2005 but ended up right back in school the next September, subbing the whole year for a friend who was ill. She reached many students over her career. “She is one of the most fantastic teachers I ever had,” said Matt Brown, a former student. Another man who cannot say enough good things about “this precious lady” is Dave Jones, a former employee at North Central Schools. “She has been such a dedicated person to help people,” Jones said, “including the knowledge that she gave to children for so many years.” After her retirement, Connie got involved in local government and is currently serving her third term on the Pioneer Village Council. She is also a volunteer secretary at the Pioneer Church of the Nazarene. For a number of years she served on the Volunteer Leadership Board of the American Cancer Society. Recently, tragedy struck her family when, as Connie recounted with tears in her eyes, “We lost our (daughter) Tiffanie to cancer, in April at the age of 37. She was a believer, so I know she is with the Lord, but this is a heartache that is indescribable.” Even so, she is grateful for the time she gets to spend with her grandchildren as, “They bring such a bright spot and encouragement at this time in our lives. “It has been very healing to have them around as they talk about their Aunt Tiffanie and bring new perspective to our loss,” she said. Connie says that it is not cliché, but truth, that we need to “enjoy every day. Tell your family members you love them. The loss is so overwhelming but we need to stay focused on the positive and it encourages me as well as others. “God has me in this position and if there is some way I can be helpful to others, I want to be ready and willing to assist.”
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 13:50:33 +0000
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