| Sources |
- [S4] Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), 29 Aug 1999.
Sam Ellis Obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 20 Aug 2008.
First day of school: New teacher at Catons Chapel in same classroom as her mother had 50 years ago
CATONS CHAPEL - It seemed fitting that Anne Marie Laprees would begin her first day as a classroom teacher in a certain third-grade room at Catons Chapel School.
Her mother spent her third-grade year in the same classroom nearly a half-century ago.
Laprees awoke Monday with a mixture of nervousness and excitement, ready to begin her career in a room that she and her family had spent three weeks getting ready.
Laprees, her husband Clayton, her brother Andy and her parents, Don and Patsy Farmer, helped to paint the room bright yellow and green, install new blinds, build new cubby holes for the students' supplies and put up posters and sayings such as "Give someone a hand and you both climb higher."
Laprees got the bug to teach after working at the Sevierville Boys & Girls Club.
"I loved being around the kids and decided that's what I wanted to do," she said.
Her classroom had been the art and music center, so it took some transformation. The school bought the paint, but the family did the labor.
Her third-graders arrived to find their names printed on a strip of paper attached to the desk and some puzzles to do while all the students arrived. Some came in with parents, like Jesse Rolen, whose dad Dean helped carry the child's bookbag and find his cubby hole.
Watching over all the opening-day activities - for the 24th straight year - was principal Bill Hatcher.
"It's still exciting," he said of the first day of classes. "Maybe at times you dread it after the summer, but I always look forward to it."
Hatcher spent time in front of the building to greet the students and parents as they arrived. He answered questions, solved problems and wandered the halls to make sure all was going well.
"I've seen a lot of these students grow up," he said.
Hatcher expected an enrollment of around 425 children. Catons Chapel is a K-8 school.
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
LAPREES, CLAYTON ADAM FARMER, ANNE MARIE 2006-05-27
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