Beaufort educational leader Etta Mann dies

Etta Mann of Lady’s Island, a Beaufort County educator for almost four decades and a member of Penn Center’s 1862 Circle, died July 14 at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. She was 88.

She was hired sight unseen right out of St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, N.C., in 1949 to teach at the Penn School on St. Helena Island.

In the classroom and as a school guidance counselor, Mann was on the front lines of tense milestones for the county, including establishment of the first state-supported public school for black students on St. Helena Island and later the forced integration of the public schools.

“Oh, Lord have mercy,” is one way Mann described the time when St. Helena High, Robert Smalls High and Beaufort High merged into a single school. “It took a little time, but we eventually got it back together.”

She said when people finally talked to each other, they found out they weren’t really all that different.

Mann was reared in a family of teachers, including her mother, her fourth-grade teacher in the Eastover farming community near Columbia. Mann said she knew early on she wanted to teach, and pursued it with a college degree and master’s degree from Indiana University after graduating from Booker T. Washington High in Columbia.

But when the late Jonathan Francis Sr. hired her to teach at Penn, founded in 1862 as one of America’s first schools for freed slaves, she stepped into a different world. She felt welcomed as an outsider in a closed Gullah community, and found parents on the isolated island to be caring. “They wanted their children to get an education,” Mann said.

In an interview last year, Mann said she has seen expectations rise on St. Helena from getting a high school diploma to going to college. She also said she saw the quality of public schools and educational opportunities for local students skyrocket during her lifetime.

“I think the schools are on the go,” she said. “I don’t care how well you do something, you’ll always have complainers.”

She arrived as Etta Nickpeay before marrying the late U.S. Marine Corps Master Sgt. Earl T. Mann Sr.

A lifetime of devotion to Penn School, which converted to the Penn Center shortly after her arrival, was cited in her induction into the prestigious 1862 Circle.

“Throughout her life, Mrs. Mann has led efforts to enhance Penn Center and its programs for the people,” it was said at her induction. “Her leadership has extended to the broader community as well: one of the founders of HELP, past president of the Pan Hellenic Council, Beaufort’s Best Chance Network, and the Lowcountry Ladies of South Carolina, and former director of the legal advocacy fund for the American Association of University Women.”

She also was dedicated to her beloved Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Mann is survived by sons Earl Mann Jr. and Eric Nickpeay Mann; daughter-in-law Robynne Mann; and granddaughters Jasmine and Sydney.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 19, at her church, the Parish Church of St. Helena in Beaufort. Burial will follow in Beaufort National Cemetery. Visitation will be 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at Marshel’s Wright-Donaldson Home for Funerals.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to Historic Penn Center, P.O. Box 126, St. Helena Island, SC 29920.

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Beaufort educational leader Etta Mann dies."