Higdon Will Lead Christmas Parade Up Main Street
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
By Jessie Gurner
Herald Contributor
WATER VALLEY – When Sammy Higdon moved to Water Valley in 1976, he could never have dreamed that his future career would impact the lives of hundreds of children and have a lasting positive effect on the community.
This year the Water Valley Area Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce Sammy Higdon as the Grand Marshal of the annual Christmas Parade, which is set for 6 p.m. on December 2.
His job originally brought Higdon and his wife Sherri to Water Valley from Danville, Ill. “I worked for a dollar store company. They sent us here, but everywhere we went I took college courses at night.”
By working at numerous jobs, and going to college with the help of GI Bill benefits, Higdon eventually received his degree in elementary education from Ole Miss.
Higdon taught fourth grade at Oxford Elementary for five years beginning in 1978. “The first year I wasn’t too sure about it,” he admits. “But then I got hooked.” From teaching, he moved on to being the assistant principal for two years splitting his days between Bramlett Elementary (grades 1-3) and Oxford Elementary (grades 4-6).
In 1985, after the retirement of Melvin Ford, he came to Water Valley as the principal at Davidson Elementary School and remained in that position for 14 years before becoming superintendent of the Water Valley School District for 11 years.
He remembers the years he spent at Davidson and the teachers he worked alongside with admiration. “When you have excellent teachers, stay out of their way. I was loaded and blessed with outstanding teachers. Just outstanding.”
While at Davidson, the school consistently scored in the top 15 to 20 percent in the state. Even more impressive is that it was the only school with these scores where 76 percent of the students were receiving free or reduced priced lunches. “We had a standard and goals we wanted to meet and the teachers far exceeded that. When you’ve got an excellent school, you’ve got excellent teachers” says Higdon. “We did so many things – the plays with all the grades. The teachers did that and spent a lot of their off time on things. And there was a lot of community support, too.”
Higdon was offered the job of superintendent in 1999. While the position provided new challenges, he says he missed the interaction with the students. “As an elementary person, I really got involved with them.”
“The hardest job in the school system is the teacher’s job, they deal with problems everyday. When the bell rings the teacher shuts the door and doesn’t open it until the bell rings again. As superintendent, I was not teaching that child. My job was to support the teacher who was teaching that child.”
In addition to his school responsibilities, Higdon participated in a variety of civic duties including VFW/Quartermaster post 4100, Chamber of Commerce board member, and an inactive draft board member for 20 years. He was a Mississippi Consortium board member, Ole Miss Alumni Education board member and Mississippi Association of School Superintendents Board member along with being a member of the Water Valley Lions Club.
Higdon retired from the Water Valley School District in 2010. In 2007, he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to serve on the Northwest Mississippi Community College Board of Trustees. A position he still holds.
“I’m very thankful to be a member of the Board. We have an outstanding community college, and I am a big believer in community colleges,” Higdon says.
In July, 2022, NMCC President, Dr. Michael J. Heindl presented him with an award honoring his 15 years of service on the college board during the annual Mississippi Association of Community Colleges (MACC) conference.
Along with his professional obligations and civic duties, Higdon always found time for family life. Married to his high school sweetheart, Cherri, for 54 years, he says,“I would never have gotten my degrees without her support.”
They are parents to two children, Denise and Trea; three grandchildren, Hannah, Dalton and Trace; and one great-grandson Sammy Bray.
Christmas is a special time for the family. “Our traditions have changed over the years,” says Cherri. “Especially now the children are grown and the grandchildren are in college.”
“The grandchildren think I am exaggerating when I tell them that about Christmas when we were young and would just get candy and fruit in our stocking,” she says.
“My favorite Christmases were back then,” her husband adds. “I came from the cotton patches of Arkansas. We didn’t have much, but those are good memories.”
“The good old days,” Cherri agrees.
The magic of Christmas and family traditions come in many different ways. This year’s Christmas Parade offers families the chance to celebrate along with Grand Marshal Sammy Higdon and his family and create some memories of their own that in the future will become the good old days.