On Saturday, May 31, Rachel Scurlock turned 99.
Or was it 101?
There is a bit of intrigue surrounding her birth date.
Her driver’s license lists 1926 as the year of her birth. Another document cites 1924.
Family members and friends who gathered May 31 at her home on Sharkey Road near Tippo chose to celebrate the day as her 99th year of life.
Mrs. Rachel has a touch of dementia and can lend nothing definitive to the topic, or is she merely being coy?
What she does know and proclaims with a smile is that she is a “child of God,” a Christian, and an almost lifelong member of the nearby Mount Levy Missionary Baptist Church.
Even her thoughts about her age seem to trend toward her faith.
“They say women don’t like to tell their age. I have to be very careful on that. I don’t like to tell my age,” she said. “I want to stay young, where I’ll look pretty. I want to look pretty like the angels in heaven.”
The daughter of the Rev. Alex and Mrs. Arlie Jones and the ninth child among a family of 13, Mrs. Rachel has lived a very full life.
Born on a small farm from which she had a 6-mile walk to the community church school at Morning Star, she was sent at age 16 to attend the high school facilities on the campus of Rust College in Holly Springs. In 1943, she married Leroy Scurlock.
Although Mrs. Rachel would not be blessed with children of her own, she began a more than 40-year career as a teacher and administrator in Tallahatchie County, where she touched the lives of untold numbers of youth.
A closeup of Rachel Scurlock, May 31, 2025. (Photo by Clay McFerrin)
According to a biographical sketch prepared for her 1988 retirement celebration at Black Bayou Elementary School near Glendora, Mrs. Rachel first began teaching in 1946 at the Saint Paul Church School for grades 1-8, later transferring to Mount Levy Church School with its two-teacher setting in the Sharkey-Twilight community.
In 1953, she started teaching at the new Swan Lake Public School. In spring 1957, she became principal there.
With multiple educational and administrative university degrees in hand, Mrs. Rachel also served 13 years as principal and classroom teacher at Riverview Elementary School in Philipp before finishing out her professional career by serving 16 years as principal and teacher at Black Bayou.
In 1966, she became the first Black poll worker at the Glendora election precinct. She later was named precinct manager.
In 1986, she was appointed as Beat 4’s representative to the Tallahatchie County Library Board, becoming the first Black member of that body. She went on to serve as chairperson of the library board.
Mrs. Rachel served several terms as the elected District 4 election commissioner. When she resigned in 2012 due to health concerns, she was chairperson of the Tallahatchie County Election Commission.
In 2015, she was featured in a book, “Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom,” which included oral histories and photographs of over 50 African American church mothers from the Mississippi Delta, including 10 who lived in Tallahatchie County.
Mrs. Rachel still lives in her own home with her stepson Leroy Scurlock Jr. and his friend Clara Gipson. A private caregiver, Martha Smith, serves part time.
Undated photo of Rachel Scurlock when she was being sworn in for another term as Tallahatchie County election commissioner. (Sun-Sentinel file photo by Clay McFerrin)
Looking back, Mrs. Rachel recalls a major turning point in her life, when God impressed upon her, “during a time when black and white didn’t mix, period,” to leave the comfort of home and familiar surroundings and become more involved in the community at large, to volunteer and to serve.
Displaying a self-described gentle spirit and warm attitude, she stepped out — making new acquaintances, finding new interests and exploring unexpected opportunities on her way to gaining wide acceptance as someone who could bridge gaps and blaze trails.
While noting that many of "the whites would even help me," Mrs. Rachel said others "would come into the school and threaten me" and ask "who told me to do that."
Her reply to one man, she recalled, was, "I got it from where everybody else gets it ... out of the Bible."
Blessed with very high cheekbones and dimples — "So many people recognize me by my dimples," she mused — Mrs. Rachel persevered, often with a smile, in what she considered to be a higher calling.
"I was helped by God all the way from the beginning to the end," she explained. "... He took care of me all the way through.”
“God was using me. ... And He's still using me."
