Memories of sixth grade English class at West Manor Elementary bring a smile to Tracy Flanagan’s face.
“I’d heard things in advance,” she said of Sylvia Sewell’s English class. “I’d heard we would have to learn a lot of poetry, and I was a little apprehensive about that. But it was great!”
As an English teacher in the Atlanta Public School System for more than 30 years, Mrs. Sewell took her love of poetry into the classroom. Many of the works she had students, copy, learn and later recite, were some of her favorites, said her daughter Robyn Burns. The cadre of poems included Abou Ben Adhem by James Henry Leigh Hunt, Invictus by William Ernest Henley and James Weldon Johnson’s The Creation.
Ms. Flanagan said even in her adult life, she finds use for poems she learned in the sixth grade.
"I would use the poems for my mic checks," said the former TV reporter. "And I also use them to relax. It was a comfort to me, and it still is a comfort to have those poems."
Mrs. Sewell’s love of poetry was likely a reason she always taught English, Mrs. Burns said. And her classes were legendary at West Manor and J.C. Harris elementary schools.
“I even had her when I was in sixth grade at J.C. Harris,” her daughter said. “People thought I had it easy, but it was harder for me. Mother was not an easy teacher, but she was firm and fair.”
Sylvia Ann Dodson Sewell, of Atlanta, died Oct. 20 of congestive heart failure. She was 95. A celebration of her life is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday in the chapel at Campbell-Stone senior apartments in Buckhead. Her body was cremated. SouthCare Cremation Society and Memorial Centers in Marietta is in charge of arrangements.
Originally from Buchanan, Ga., which is near the Alabama state line off Interstate 20, Mrs. Sewell graduated from the former Bessie Tift College in Forsyth. In 1939, shortly after Mrs. Sewell – then Sylvia Dodson – graduated, she married Robert Sewell. The couple enjoyed 66 years of marriage before Mr. Sewell died in 2005.
Mrs. Sewell retired from teaching in 1985, but she kept in touch with many of her former students, Mrs. Burns said. She attended West Manor and J.C. Harris class reunions and enjoyed reminiscing about her days in the classroom.
“Some of the J.C. Harris students were having a reunion in October, but mother was ill and couldn’t go,” her daughter said. “But she’d made plans to go earlier, and even made sure I’d be able to drive her.”
In addition to class reunions, Mrs. Sewell filled her retirement days with volunteering and something she called her “card ministry,” Mrs. Burns said. Mrs. Sewell volunteered at Piedmont Hospital as a Pink Lady for more than 25 years, her daughter said, delivering the mail nearly every Friday to patients. She also sent greeting cards to her friends and to her more than 300 neighbors at Campbell-Stone.
“She insisted on doing her cards every holiday,” Mrs. Burns said. “And then she would hand deliver the ones to the people in her building. It would take her hours, but she loved to do it.”
Mrs. Sewell is also survived by a second daughter, Suzanne Antink of Newport Beach, Calif.; four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
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