Krebs, Syvlia
KREBS, Sylvia H.
Sylvia Howell Krebs of Douglasville died Tuesday, January 12, at Baptist Hospital of Mississippi in Jackson following complications of abdominal surgery, with family at her bedside. She had spent the holidays at the farm where she grew up, near Forest, Mississippi. Sylvia was born in Forest on September 9, 1937. Her father, Sam Howell, had purchased the farm, with its house now 150 years old, in 1935. Her mother was Mary Sue Williamson Howell. Sylvia lived in Douglasville with her husband Ed for more than 45 years.
Educated in Forest city schools, Sylvia was known for her basketball career at Forest High School. The Forest girls won state tournaments in 1954 and 1955. A few years ago, Sylvia wrote a memoir, 81 Straight, about those teams and her teammates. She was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, was one of the first inductees in the Scott County Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, and received the same honor from her alma mater, Belhaven College, in 1996.
Her 35-year teaching career began in Yazoo City and continued at colleges and universities in Alabama, Georgia, Taiwan, and China. She earned her doctoral degree in U.S. history at the University of Alabama in 1966. Sylvia joined the history department at (then) West Georgia College in 1968, where she met and married colleague Ed Krebs in 1970. Sylvia went to Seattle with Ed soon after their wedding in 1970.Their honeymoon was the trip "out west," camping and pulling their belongings in a small trailer.
After Ed completed his coursework in Chinese history at the University of Washington, the couple went to Taiwan in 1971-72 for Ed's Chinese language program. This was the first of many residences in China. They made their first trip to the Chinese mainland and the Peoples Republic in 1984-85 to teach English in Chongqing. Later sojourns in China were spent in Xi'an, Beijing, and Nanjing. Sylvia and Ed spent half of the 1990s in China. She taught courses in language, literature, and culture while he worked with American students in the Duke University Study in China Program.
Sylvia received a long-term appointment at (then) DeKalb Community College beginning in 1974. This began two decades of teaching, with many friendships there until her retirement in 1994.
While she never lost interest in U.S. history, living in China gradually made Sylvia a "China person" (as Ed would say). Long-time members of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association of Atlanta (USCPFA-Atlanta), the couple have held positions of local leadership. Sylvia served as editor of the chapter newsletter for 20 years. She was a regular contributor to the US-China Review, the national organization's quarterly journal, which she also edited once a year for several years. Her book of essays, How Am I to Touch with You? Reflections on China (2010), which distills her writing on China, has been enjoyed by many readers.
Sylvia enjoyed organizing exhibits of Chinese art in various venues around Atlanta. Photographs and paintings were shown at the arts center in Douglasville, the downtown Atlanta library, and at several suburban libraries. Some exhibits displaying children's art were done in cooperation with a friend in Xi'an. Sylvia was also instrumental in establishing the Turner
Cassity Literary Festival in Douglasville, named for Sylvia's cousin who also grew up in Forest, Mississippi.
From 1999 until 2017 the couple organized travel tours to China through their two-person company, "China Bridge" to introduce small groups to China. While most of the trips included only adults, one of the most memorable of them involved young artists of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta (BGCMA), through Linden Longino's Paint Pals youth art movement and Rebecca DesMarais, arts director for BGCMA. The trip began in Beijing with an international youth art exhibit for the Beijing Olympics of 2008, with the young American artists' work exhibited alongside that of young Chinese artists.
Sylvia joined Ed as an early participant in "Stand for Peace," begun in August 2002 to protest the likelihood of war in Iraq, and continuing through early 2020 when the COVID pandemic brought this long pause. Motorists and pedestrians around Colony Square grew accustomed to the sight of a dozen seniors waving posters week after week. Bonding of the participants led them to continue their work as a vigil in the cause of peace. With her passing, Sylvia joins the roll of some half-dozen participants who have died over the 18 years of this action.
Although they married relatively late in life, Sylvia and Ed celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in August 2020. They looked forward to adding to those years together, but it was not to be. It is fitting that Sylvia's life on earth ended where it began. Her central values have been equity and justice in society, peace as more than the absence of violence, and living a caring, inquisitive life. Sylvia's generous character held a well of goodwill ready to reach out to friends. She always enjoyed sharing humor, ideas, books and thoughts on books, stories and reminiscences.
Besides her husband, survivors include two nephews, Bart Pass of Forest and Michael Pass (Dianne) of Waynesville, N.C., Mike's children are four grandnephews and two grandnieces, and in the next generation, three great-grandnephews and three great-grandnieces.
Because of the current public health situation, no memorial gatherings will be held until conditions allow. We hope to assure that everyone interested will be notified of those gatherings. Meanwhile, all are invited to share memories through Ott & Lee Funeral Services at ottandlee.com or the Legacy site through newspapers. Sylvia's earthly remains have been cremated, and family and friends will spread her ashes at places she loved.
Those who would like to make memorial contributions are encouraged to support Forest Public Library or one's local library. Doctors without Borders, International Rescue Committee, and the Nature Conservancy also have been among Sylvia's causes.
