A longtime educator has received the highest honor possible for an Alcorn State University alumna.

Jo Ella Harrison Walls was named Alcornite of the Year in February, at the 2009 Mid-Winter Conference in Houston. She was honored locally Friday night at the annual ASU National Alumni Association awards banquet.

“Mrs. Walls is very deserving of the award that she received,” said Charles Davis, director of alumni affairs at ASU.

“She has been very active on a number of alumni activities.”

Walls was chosen from a pool of five candidates from across the country. The award is based on service to the community and Alcorn.

“I was in tears; it’s so overwhelming,” Walls said. “I didn’t know when I entered Alcorn in 1966 that I would get anything like this. I’ve always been dedicated and worked with the university.”

A Spring Hill native, Walls received from Alcorn a bachelor’s degree in business education in 1970 and a master’s in education in 1977.

Before beginning a career in education, in 1970 Walls was hired as an employment interviewer with the Mississippi Employment Commission, the first black woman to hold that position, she said.

However, Walls said, “I am not a sit-down person,” and she went after the first vacant spot as a business teacher and bookkeeper at Port Gibson High School. She remained there for the next 15 years and, in 1985, was hired as a business teacher for Warren Central High School, where she taught until her retirement in 2000.

What Walls calls semi-retired, she returned to teaching business classes in 2000 at Madison Parish High School, then served as assistant administrator for the school district two years later. She has worked with the Vicksburg Warren School District this academic year, at Sherman Avenue Elementary, as a tutor for the Reading First program. Next for Walls is a job as a coordinator for the summer WIN job program for ages 16-24 offered by the Mississippi Employment Security Commission, then full retirement next year.

Walls has been a volunteer chaperone for Alcorn’s high school day, was the 2008 and 2009 Relay for Life chairman and treasurer of the Retired Teachers Association of Warren County. She is married to John Walls, deputy superintendent of the VWSD and 1997 Alcornite of the Year. They have two children who both attended ASU.

The couple have been referred to by friends as “bleeding purple and gold,” Alcorn’s colors.

In addition to Walls, 17 national alumni awards were presented Friday night, recipents included Walter T. Sheriff, president of the Vicksburg-Warren County Alumni Chapter, who was named the Robert W. Bowles Chapter President of the Year, and Shirley Tinner of Port Gibson who received the Thomas Moman Sr. Meritorious Award.

That same night, seven people were inducted into the Alcorn State University Hall of Honor, an award Walls received in 1991 and helped establish in 1990. The inductees are: Emma J. Allen of Birmingham; Robert Collier of Monticello; Pastella T. Hampton of Memphis; Lemore Allen of Birmingham; Ethel S. Boyd of Carrollton; Barbara B. Kennedy of Moss Point; and Johnny Robinson of Greenville.

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Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchanprasith@vicksburgpost.com