Humbled By An English Teacher

Mima Ann Williams

There was a rule about English that I did not like.  If you failed to make a B or higher in Freshman English you were required to take English 230 – popularly known as “ignorant English” and “dumbbell English” if you wanted to graduate.  I shouldn’t have made a C in Freshman English.  I don’t blame the instructor.  I blame my own poor study habits.

English 230 was straight grammar, and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me during my college years.  Our instructor was Mima Ann Williams.   She was a spinster, and rumored to have been a Women’s Army Corps officer in World War II.  She loved the English language and did everything in her power to make sure that it is properly spoken and written, and she was hard as nails.  Winston Churchill had to repeat an English grammar course during his educational experiences.  He later looked back on it and said, “The language was ground into my bones.”  Miss Williams did the same thing for me.

I always thought she resented the fact that we were such poor English students that we had to take her course.  She took aim at us with a double barreled shotgun.  I thought I was fairly proficient in English grammar already.  I figured Ione McIntyre taught me all I needed to know about grammar when I was in high school. So I didn’t take her seriously at first.   It was a nightmare.  I think I probably diagrammed sentences in my sleep.  I know today’s English teachers think sentence diagramming is an outdate technique, but I’ll say this for it.  You learned the parts of speech and how they fit into a sentence.

One day she got enough of having a class full of people who weren’t serious about what she was trying to teach them.  I was thinking, “Yeah, you think this is the best things since the pocket on the shirt.”  Suddenly she said, “There are people in this class who are capable of doing good work.”  But she didn’t stop there.  She said, “You take Norman Bales.  He could do good work if he just would.”  I thought, “I’ll show you a thing or two” and from that moment on I got serious about studying grammar.  I’ve had three published books, and I co-authored a fourth one. That would not have been possible without Mima Ann Williams.  When she publicly called me out, I began learning the language.

When I completed my first book, I dedicated it to Miss Williams and to Della Pack, whom I’ve already mentioned.

When the book was published, she had retired but was working as a volunteer at the college library.  My daughter, Ruby, was in school then.  I sent her a copy of the book and asked her to give it to Miss Williams.  In the inscription I apologized for any grammatical errors that might appear in the text.  Ruby said she cried when it was presented to her.   I didn’t even know she was capable of tears.   Then she told Ruby, “You’ve got his eyes.”  I never realized she watched me that close.

After she received the book, she wrote me a wonderful letter.  Among other things she said, “If I embarrassed you in front of your classmates, and that caused you to get serious about writing, I’m glad I did it.”