Mu Chapter, Xi State

Inez Secrist DeLozier came from a long line of educators. Her great-great grandfather was a Lutheran minister. Once a year for many years, he rode horseback from Pennsylvania to East Tennessee to preach to the Cherokee Indians during the season when they were weaving baskets from the profusion of willows that grew on the banks of the Holston River near Knoxville. He established the first Lutheran church in Tennessee and made copybooks for the frontier school nearby.

Inez, the daughter of Ursher Lee and Dortha Miller Secrist, became interested in education at an early age. Her mother taught "elocution," and, instead of telling fairy stories at bedtime, she entertained her children with Shakespeare. She was zealous and persevering in training and encouraging her children, and Inez, a talented child, responded with great enthusiasm and interest.

Though born in Knoxville, Inez was brought up on a farm in the Prospect community east of Maryville, where her family had moved, taking along the five orphaned children of her mother's brother. She received her early education at Prospect School, Porter High School, and Central High School, Knox County. After graduating from the latter in 1925, she entered the University of Tennessee, where she completed three years of training in elementary education. In addition to her college training, she completed a secretarial course and studied music, art, and dramatics for approximately ten years. She also received some training for psychiatric social welfare. She was married to Niman Inman DeLozier in April, 1929.

Mrs. DeLozier has taught for twenty-six years, in every grade from kindergarten through the ninth. In addition, she has coached elementary and high school basketball. She is presently teaching seventh grade at Porter.

Twice Mrs. DeLozier has taught in mountain schools, once as principal of a two-room schools when she was nineteen years old and again as primary teacher in another school during the depression. In the latter school she found the children suffering from malnutrition and diseases caused by unsanitary conditions and neglect. When she left after two years, the school had three teachers. There was also a hot lunch program and other improvements, which made such medication as sulphur and grease or ammoniated mercury ointment unnecessary.

Through the years Mrs. DeLozier has been active in numerous professional and civic organizations, in all of which she has rendered valuable service as an officer in various capacities and as a member of numberless committees. As a member of Mu Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, she has acted as chairman of Pioneer Teacher Research, Teacher Recruitment, and Legislative committees.

Always active in the church of her affiliation, Mrs. DeLozier has found time to devote herself to other interests as well-people, politics, drama, sports, reading, and writing. Her versatility and wide sphere of influence have enabled her to make a noteworthy contribution not only to education in Tennessee, but also to the cultural and religious interests of every community in which she has resided.

Source: Light from Many Candles: A History of Pioneer Women in Education in Tennessee, by Lucille Rogers. Published by Xi State, Delta Kappa Gamma.McQuiddy Printing Company, Nashville, 1960. Transcribed for this site by Char.