William G. Stewart Elementary School

William G. Stewart Elementary School serves the western portion of the small city of Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, with public school pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The institution is located at 215 North Middle Landing Road, a block north of common U.S. Highway 79 and U.S. Highway 80, known in Minden as the "Shreveport Road". [ [http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=william+g.+stewart+elementary+school+of&near=Minden,+LA&fb=1&view=text&latlng=3060561381962818763 william g. stewart elementary school of loc: Minden, LA - Google Maps ] ] It is one of four public elementary schools in Minden. The school opened in 1949. It is named for Minden businessman William G. Stewart (October 5, 1882 - August 1970) [ [http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi Social Security Death Index Interactive Search ] ] , a former president of the Webster Parish School Board. As did many of the early city leaders, Stewart graduated from the former Minden Male Academy on Sullivan Street, a predecessor to Minden High School, which opened in 1901. [ [http://www.mindenmemories.org/Parks%20and%20Highways.htm Memories of Minden ] ] The companion school to Stewart on the eastern side of Minden is E.S. Richardson Elementary School, named for educator and former Louisiana Tech University president E.S. Richardson. Prior to Stewart and Richardson, elementary pupils had attended classes in the high school complex on College Street. Both schools were constructed through a bond issue after World War II. Prior to desegregation, the historically black J.L. Jones Elementary School at 620 District Drive [ [http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=18267359 JL Jones Elementary School, Minden, LA : Reviews and maps - Yahoo! Local ] ] was operating in the same neighborhood. Both schools serve the western part of Minden and are heavily African American in enrollment. Stewart had some 350 students in the 2007-2008 year. Most are eligible for federally-funded school lunches. [ [http://www.schooldigger.com/go/LA/schools/0189001453/school.aspx?Entity=82 Real estate listing prices around Stewart Elementary School, Minden Louisiana / LA ] ]

From 1967-1994, Lonnie Milton Simpson (born March 26, 1937) was the principal of Stewart Elementary from 1967-1994. A native of Cotton Valley in Webster Parish and a graduate of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, he arrived at the school in 1960 as a sixth grade teacher. Having since retired from the school system, he remains an active Baptist layman.

Notable faculty

*Katherine M. "Kate" Crownover (1907-1995), a native of Ringgold in Bienville Parish, taught fourth grade for some two decades at Stewart Elementary.
*Gay Lewis Jones (1908-1996)
*Martha Risdon "Mattie" Levins (1902-1998), a native of Mount Lebanon in Bienville Parish, taught elementary school for forty-five years, much of it the second grade at Stewart Elementary. She was named "Educator of the Year" in 1963.
*Willie Joyce Roberts McCausland (1916-2004), a native of Clarks in Caldwell Parish, taught third grade at Stewart during the 1950s and 1960s. [ [http://www.mindenmemories.org/Teachers%20II.htm Teachers II ] ]

References