Eoline Octavia Sessoms loved the opera, and, when an unexpected 1960s opportunity came her way to serve as something of a patron of the arts, she jumped at the chance.
The newly integrated chorus of the Metropolitan Opera had come to tour Atlanta and black members were denied entry into local hotels. Sessoms volunteered to host them at her southwest Atlanta home. The gesture would endear her to chorus member Elinor Harper-Johnson, who become such a close friend -- later introducing Sessoms to opera great Leontyne Price -- that Harper-Johnson opted to stay with Sessoms each time she came to the city, even after hotels integrated.
"She opened her home to everyone," said Cheryl Elliott, an Atlanta resident and one of the many relatives to whom Sessoms was known simply as "Auntie."
Sessoms, who was the youngest child of the late Frank and Octavia Anderson Elliott, died June 27 at her home. Sessoms was 85.
The Elliotts, one of few families of color living in Savannah's Isle of Hope neighborhood, had decided early on to send their five children to boarding school. Sessoms attended Mather School in Beaufort, S.C. It wasn't easy for a custodian and domestic worker to accommodate private school, but it was a move that laid the foundation for Sessoms' commitment to education.
As a student at then-Savannah State College, Sessoms met Kennie E. Sessoms and in 1950 the couple married and soon moved to Atlanta. Sessoms began teaching kindergarten at English Avenue Elementary School and later in her career she taught upper grades at Adamsville Elementary School.
"She was good at teaching," Elliott said. "She had patience, but she was an old school teacher. She believed in order and discipline. She expected you to be a good student. She gave kids the sense that they could succeed, but she wasn't going to make it easy for them."
Sessoms' high expectations extended to the many children who came in and out of her home, sometimes living with her for extended periods of time. Elliott recalled Sessoms' home as the place where she learned to appreciate classic literature.
"There wasn't much playing at Auntie's house; you got a book when you came over, and I read every last one of them," Elliott said.
Sessoms, who retired from teaching in 1988, was no nonsense, but she had a big heart and was always assisting members of her family and friends.
"At some point, we all lived with Auntie," Elliott said of her and her siblings. "When we got sick, we would come here and we knew we would be all right because Auntie would take care of you."
When Sessoms suffered a stroke in 1996 her family rallied around her, helping her get well enough to continue indulging in her passions, which included growing roses, gardenias, petunias and begonias in her yard, and serving on various boards at the Lutheran Church of the Atonement.
Born on June 13, 1926, Sessoms, who was a bit superstitious, made a habit of adding or subtracting a day from her birthday to avoid a Friday the 13th celebration, said Elliott. But in Sessoms' later years, the family would gather every June 13 for a big party.
"We made sure we celebrated on the 13th so it could have a positive association," Elliott said. "And she began to embrace it."
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