By Rhonda Chambers
Buck graduated in 1959 from Delta State College in Mississippi with a BA degree in History and in 1967 received a Master’s Degree plus 30 hours in Administration from Southeastern. His first teaching assignment was in 1959 as a Physical Education teacher and coached the girls’ basketball team at Lee Road Jr. for four years and then moved to Mandeville High where he taught social studies classes and coached the girls’ basketball team.
Four years later he was reassigned to Covington High as a social studies teacher and was later promoted to its Assistant Principal’s position. In 1973 Buck was promoted to the Principal of Schoen Middle where he remained until his retirement in 1991.
Joyce graduated from Southeastern Louisiana College in 1959 with a degree in Elementary Education. She returned to Southeastern and in 1969 was awarded a Master’s Degree plus 30 hours in Supervision. Her first teaching assignment was at Lacombe Elementary as a second grade teacher in 1959.
Three years later she was reassigned to Covington Elementary where she taught for the remainder of her career. She taught 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders and was chosen to be a supervisor of student teachers from Southeastern during that time. Joyce retired in 1989.
They have both chosen to lead a fulfilling second half of their lives after retiring. Buck worked at his brother’s business, the Covington Nursery for five years and then evaluated 1st year teachers in the LaTAAP program for 10 years. Joyce has always loved working with children so was a childcare provider in private homes for a few years before being hired to work with babies and young children at the Family Service Center across from Covington High. This was a daycare for children of girls who were finishing high school or college. For ten years the couple traveled with friends to east and west Canada, as well as, many states within the USA.
A typical day for Buck would be to have breakfast at McDonalds around 8:30 and then spend the rest of the morning either gardening or in lawn maintenance. After lunch he enjoys reading and watching the daily news. He really enjoys watching and participating in Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. (Joyce says he holds his own in the competitions!) He also enjoys watching various sports on TV. Sundays you will find Buck ushering the attendees at the First Baptist Church of Covington. Joyce and Buck spend a lot of their time together just enjoying each other.
An easy question for the couple was “What was the best thing that happened to you last year?” Their daughters Laura and Pam got together and planned an 80th birthday party celebration for the two of them to include memorabilia from their entire lives from 1937 to 2017. Many friends and family members attended.
When I asked if you won the lottery what would you do with it? Buck responded, “I would give it all away, to the church, family, friends, and needy worthwhile causes.”
I asked them if they could remember having one favorite gift as a child…Since they are from rather large families, Buck has 7 siblings and Joyce has 8, they both said that they didn’t receive many as children. The one that stood out for Buck was a BB gun, and Joyce at 7 years old received an orange hardback book, Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates.
If you could only eat one food for two weeks what would it be? Joyce’s response was, “I would have McDonald’s sausage biscuit-well done!”
