More than 300 people took time Sunday to visit Jefferson Funeral Home and say their final goodbyes to Dr. Ethel Lassiter, a Vicksburg native and longtime educator who taught in the Vicksburg School District and at other institutions.

“She was very dependable, very jovial and very concerned about what she had to do,” said Gwendolyn Brown, a former teacher who knew Lassiter for 20 years. “She was always willing to give back to others what she had learned to continue the growth of America.”

Lassiter was born in Vicksburg in 1947 and graduated from Rosa A. Temple High School in 1965. She graduated from Alcorn State University with a bachelor’s degree specialization in business education in 1969.

She received a Master of Science in Education with specialization in business education from Southern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in higher education and supervision from the University of Mississippi.

She was principal of Dana Road Elementary School from 2007 until her retirement in 2013, and later worked at Alcorn’s Vicksburg campus, as lead consultant, EML Educational Consulting.

Zelmarine Murphy, a former Vicksburg Warren School District Trustee, had known Lassiter all her life.

Lassiter, she said, was easy to work with and very concerned about education.

“She worked to make life enjoyable for those students who were a little less fortunate than others and was very knowledgeable about education.”

El Freda Parker was a student of Lassiter’s at Vicksburg High School.

Lassiter, she said, “Was very loving, very cheering, and it was easy the compassion she had for church members was the same compassion for each and every one of her students.

“She really believed in helping others and inspiring others. She always told me, ‘I see that you’re going to be a leader some day.’”