After 32 years of service to the Beaufort County Schools system, Fannie Lawrence Willis has retired as a teacher and assistant principal.

Willis, the daughter of the late Arthur Jackson and Margaret Harding Lawrence, is a native of Washington, and lived in a community east of Washington (Harding’s Village) until marriage. She is married to Pastor Serinus Willis Sr. and is the proud mother of three children, two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law and seven grandchildren. She and her husband reside in the Ware Creek community in Blounts Creek.

Having family members who were educators, including her own mother, helped to influence her decision to pursue a career in education. From those experiences, along with other factors, it was inevitable that becoming an educator was her destiny.

After graduating from Washington High School, Willis attended, graduated and obtained a bachelor’s degree in business education from Elizabeth City State University. She was employed at S.W. Snowden Elementary School as a teaching assistant for approximately three years. As her enthusiasm for working with children continued to blossom, she realized that she had the ability to help bright and impressionable students reach their potential and succeed academically. Willis became more aware that she could make a difference in motivating, shaping and molding students’ lives. She continued to move forward and attended East Carolina University, where she obtained a certification in early childhood education.

Willis was again employed in the Beaufort County Schools system, in which she taught fourth grade at John Cotten Tayloe and John Small Elementary schools. After teaching hundreds of children for 27 years, she decided that she was ready to take on more administrative responsibilities to allow her infectious passion and spirit to have a broader impact. In 2012, she received her master’s degree in school administration from East Carolina University, while still continuing to teach full time. Willis felt she was ready to prove that her knowledge, skills and abilities had prepared her to become a part of the administrative team. So in 2013, she was offered and accepted the position of assistant principal at John Small under the leadership of Principal Betty Jane Green. She proved herself to be a valuable asset up to the day of her retirement, June 14.

Willis’ accomplishments and achievements over the span of her career included: being awarded Teacher of the Year from 1997-1998 and again from 2008-2009; Woman of the Year in 1994 by the Ware Creek Community Development Center; mentor for beginning teachers; textbook evaluator for North Carolina Public Schools; chairperson for fourth-grade level, Focus Group and Math Pacing Guide; committee member for restructuring Beaufort County school district; hiring committee member at John Small Elementary School and clinical teacher for ECU.

Willis said, “I truly believe that our lives are predestined by God and we all have a purpose in life. I believe when you touch a child’s life, you touch God’s heart. Having been reared in a Christian-oriented family, my parents had two beliefs that they strongly felt were of top priority: you should always put Christ first in your life; and value a good education. Along with these encouragements, I was also taught to love, care and share. My family and community also instilled in me the belief that it takes a village to raise a child.”

Willis was recently honored with a retirement dinner given by her family and friends on July 16 at Southside High School in Chocowinity.