Obituary of Della Stephens

Della Irene Stephens, age 84, of Woodland passed away March 31, 2020, at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Survivors include her husband, Presley Stephens of Woodland; two sons, Maurice Stephens and Reginald Stephens. On July 22, 1935, amid the Great Depression, I, Della Irene Wykcoff Stephens, was born to a sharecropper family in Tallapoosa County near the little town of New Site, Alabama. My father Allen Hutcherson had very little to do with my upbringing. My mother, Lorene McClain and my stepfather, Willie T. McClain, taught me the meaning of love and family. My grandparents Lucious and Dora Wyckoff, who were a second set of parents for me, taught me that no matter whether you were rich or poor, you made your own class. They said that your Christian principles and character made you first class. I was full grown before I realized that society did not classify us that way. But it was these principles taught to me by my poor and mostly uneducated family that have brought me through a long life of good and bad times. Lack of educational opportunities made me a grammar school dropout. My grandfather found a way to get me back in school. A school for blacks only was finally built and I graduated from Zana High School in my 18th year in 1954. Afterwards Jim Crow laws made me a maid for the next eight years of my life. With God’s help I entered Selma University Junior College in 1963, graduated in 1965 and entered Stillman College, from which I graduated in 1967 with a B.A. Degree in English and Education. For the next 28 years I worked in the field of education. I taught 2 years in Butler County, Alabama, then one year in East Cleveland, Ohio. I returned home and worked one year in Alexander City at Benjamin Russell High School. It was during the year that I taught in Alex City that my preacher uncle introduced me to a teacher/farmer named Presley William Stephens. We were both looking for someone to share life with. We were married the next year in July 1971. I left my home and job and moved to Randolph County with him. I taught one year at Randolph County High School. I spent the next five years only doing substitute teaching. During these years I gave birth to our precious sons: Reginald Presley Stephens and two years later Maurice William Stephens. In 1977 I went back to teaching full time and at the same time I enrolled at Jacksonville State University to work on my M.S. degree, which I received in 1979. I continued to work at Handley Middle School for the next 18 years and retired in 1995. As I look back, it was the Christian education I received at a little country church called Mt. Zion Baptist Church in New Site that I am most grateful for. It has been an ever present help in all my endeavors. There I was encouraged to use my God-given talents to teach the Bible in Sunday School and mission. I was made a counselor to the youth where I had to write speeches, poems and plays for youth programs. Things I learned there I was able to use in college classes, public schools and as counselor for the youth at Mt. Gilead in Newell and Antioch in Wedowee, and as a teacher of youth in the Friendship Western Union District. Looking back over my life, I realize my mission was always with the youth and it all started at Mt. Zion. Being blessed with a long life is a blessing but it also means that I have had to watch my family pass away. My parents have all preceded me in death: My mother Lorene McClain, my stepfather Willie T. McClain, and my father Allen Hutcherson, and my beloved grandparents Lucious and Dora Wykcoff passed away many years ago. Sadly all my younger siblings left before me, including brothers: Willie McClain, Jr. and Billy Hutcherson, and sisters: Veleria Jackson; Jannie Russell; Jane Hutcherson; as well as my Aunt Molly Wyckoff who was like a big sister to me.