JSU grad fulfills late dad’s dream: 10 kids with degrees

Angela Michelle Moore could barely contain the inner whoops and hollers as she walked across the stage to get her diploma at Jackson State University’s recent graduation.

“I wanted to whoop, hop and jump,” said Moore, 37, of Pearl, who still managed to hold all that behind a big, mega-watt smile. She was completing her late father’s dream that all 10 of his children earn a bachelor’s degree — 19 years after her first start at JSU failed to take hold.

Watching her make that milestone were her mom and nine siblings, relatives and her own four children — a crowd between 20 and 30 strong. “We did all the hollering on the floor,” Angela’s mother Rosie Courtney Moore was tickled to tell.

“That was his grand dream, that all 10 of his children have a college education,” Rosie said. The Rev. Quincy Charles Moore Jr. had been an educator, coach and mentor for more than 30 decades before retiring from Jackson Public Schools. He died eight years ago.

He’d instilled in all his kids the importance of education. “When we graduated high school, it was just the thing to do,” Angela said. “We received a boombox, a trunk and a refrigerator. So you knew that you were going somewhere. You were going to college.”

She’d sat through numerous graduations; some sisters and brothers have doctor’s and master’s degrees. She knew that one day she’d sit, and walk, through her own. At times, that dorm-sized refrigerator was passed along to the current student in need.

Angela graduated from Richland High School in 1995. Siblings’ alma maters include JSU, but also Mississippi College, University of Southern Mississippi and Auburn.

She entered JSU as a freshman the same year her older brother, Quincy, was graduating; that fridge never had to leave campus. Angela entered her freshman year “with great hopes, aspirations and dreams,” but realized some challenges once she got there. She lacked focus at the time. She completed that year but told her mom and dad she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back.

“It wasn’t a good reaction. ... They were not happy at all. At. All,” Angela said, recalling her dad’s quiet displeasure and the way both parents tried to talk her out of it. But she didn’t know what direction to go in and feared some challenges ahead.

Her mother Rosie said, even though money was tight, the family bonded together as with love and worked together as a unit to realize her husband’s dream of all his children succeeding in life. “He knew education was the first step to help to get where you needed to be.”

When his daughter didn’t continue her college studies, “Oh, he was so hurt.” But he never gave up.

In the interim, Angela worked at the Mississippi State Hospital and as an EKG technician at Baptist Medical Center and Rankin Medical Center.

“I wanted more.” After her father’s death, they were going through his things. “He kept my 1995 admission to Jackson State University. And I have it,” she said, her eyes shining. “To see the things that he wanted for me! I said, ‘Lord, God, I can do this.’ But I’ve got to want it for myself.

“It’s like my life changed. They say dramatic things have to happen before you’re able to commit. And I believe that.” She got into church. “With a strong faith and deeper commitment, I was able to achieve that goal. And I am grateful for that.

“It’s just like the light bulb came on. ... I wanted to be better. I wanted to do it for myself. I wanted to do it for my kids, to be a role model for them,” she said of her three daughters, ages 17, 16 and 14, and her son, 5.

“I thought about all the years he sacrificed for us, and it just meant more to me then.”

Her children were excited. “Then I would tell them, now if I can make A’s, B’s, ... your mind is better than my mind. Get on the ball!”

Her daughters call her an inspiration. “She’s persistent and never gave up,” Deja Moore, 17, said. “If she can do it, we all can do it,” Desarae Williams, 16, said. D’shae Williams, 14, said, “She knew there were challenges but she gave God her best.”

And Quenton, Moore, 5, repeated the words he told his mom the night she graduated, “I’m proud of you.”

Angela praised JSU’s College of Lifelong Learning for adult learners 25-plus, for flexibility that helped in her quest. “I call it the one-stop shop, with affordable day care and weekend and evening classes.”

Day of graduation, Angela was so excited she woke up at 3 a.m. “I was just full of emotion the whole week,” crying one minute and running and jumping the next.” She marveled at the way others walked with such grace and solemnity across the stage. She wanted to whoop, hop and jump. “When they called my name, I was just so excited and happy,” she said. “I really wanted to roll!”

Her mother said she’d been teary-eyed the whole week “because it just brings back so many memories. I know he would be so proud to see his 10th child walk across that stage.” It was doubly poignant for her. In her 40s, she’d completed her own 20-year-old dream to go back to nursing school, with her family’s full support.

Angela’s studies focused on education. She’s been working as a teacher’s assistant in the exceptional education class at Whitten Middle School. She plans to taking her test to get certified in special education and wants to get a master’s degree in counseling.

Where her education’s concerned, “I tell them, ‘To be continued ...”

Contact Sherry Lucas at slucas@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7283. Follow @SherryLucas1 on Twitter.