Longtime educator Richardson dies

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2000 | 9:38 a.m.

Mary G. Richardson, longtime educator in the Clark County School District, died Tuesday at a local hospital. She was 67.

A principal at Booker Elementary for 11 years and Kit Carson Elementary for three years, Richardson is remembered as always putting the students first.

Friends say she was known as a firm but fair person whose sense of humor would often land her on the dance floor with her students or lead her to spend time getting to know them during recess.

At Booker she was very active with the students, said Darlene Harvey, office manager at Kit Carson Elementary.

"She always let them know that if they needed to, they could come and talk to her," Harvey said. "She had an open door. She really cared for them."

Richardson also had a rapport with parents. As a principal in North Las Vegas when students were being bused to the sixth-grade centers, Richardson had to ease any concerns the parents from other communities had about sending their children to different neighborhoods.

During the racially tense time she was instrumental in organizing the Parent Teacher Student Organization, which taughtstudents and parents to become

more familiar and better involved with the academic and extracurricular programs at the schools.

Parents who have visited the school in recent years will comment on Mary Richardson and ask how she's doing, Harvey said.

"She left quite an impression," Harvey said.

Born April 28, 1932, in Dorchester, S.C., Richardson graduated from Savannah State College in Georgia. She taught high school to American students in Okinawa, where her husband, Lonnie, was stationed with the Air Force.

In 1964 he was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base. When they arrived in the Las Vegas Valley, Richardson, an English major in college, began teaching at Madison Elementary School.

"She was always a stickler for students to speak appropriately," Eva Simmons, a longtime friend of Richardson, said with a laugh. The two taught together at Madison.

Richardson went on to teach all levels within the Clark County School District, including Clark High School, Simmons said. As a principal she served as a mentor for a number of people who are now principals in the school district.

And during the busing years, she really empowered teachers to do the best they could for that special population, Simmons said.

So popular was Richardson as a principal that when she transferred to Carson from Booker, Harvey and a handful of teachers made the transfer with her.

Richardson retired from Kit Carson in 1992.

"We had some good years," Harvey said. "The kids here, they really loved her. She was real visible with the students."

Richardson was a member of the Clark County Classroom Teachers Association, the National Association of University Women, the Clark County Association of School Administrators and a member of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.

In addition to her husband, Lonnie, she is survived by her mother, Rilza Bacon of Waycross, Ga.; two daughters, Lydia Edwards and Zandra Peyton Richardson, both of Las Vegas; one son, Lonnie P. Richardson Jr. of Las Vegas; one sister, Inez Bacon of Atlanta; six brothers, Donell Bacon of Syracuse, N.Y., Lewis Bacon of Decatur, Ga., Arthur Lee Bacon of Thomasville, Ga., George Allen Bacon of North Carolina, Joe Bacon of Waycross, Ga., and Edward Allen Bacon of Waycross; and two grandchildren.

Visitation will be 2-7 p.m. Friday at Palm Mortuary, 1325 N. Main St. A memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the same location.

Donations may be made to the Arthritis Foundation.