In 1929 we were living in Walker and I was driving the considerable distance daily to White Oak to teach. In the spring of 1929 the Walker School Board was looking for a school principal for the next term of school. The board offered me the job at the same salary as I was receiving at White Oak. This seemed like a better deal for me, because the school building at Walker was just across the street from where we lived, therefore I would not have the expense of driving to work…

Walker had more students in the eighth and ninth grades than White Oak. The school was well organized. The primary teacher was doing a fine job teaching the first four grades. The fifth through ninth grades were being taught by the principal. The school had above-average basketball teams. Community spirit was excellent.

One day at noon, I was calling a basketball game for the larger boys’ team. One of the larger boys from that area of the district committed what I considered a disqualifying foul, therefore I put him out of the game for unnecessary roughness, substituted another boy to take his place, and resumed play. Suddenly someone from the sideline yelled loudly, "Look out, Mr. Fulbright. He is coming at you with a stone in his hand." I whirled around in time to catch the raised arm that held the stone. In the struggle, we both fell to the ground. In the process of falling, the stone hit him in the head and cut a considerable gash. I sent him home for the day because I thought he might need medical attention. He told his parents that I threw him to the ground and hit him in the head with the rock. He had an older brother and sister who were teachers and an older brother who was in the game at the time of the struggle. The boy was back in school the next morning. I heard nothing from his parents.

Things had happened so suddenly that I imagine the boy did think I hit him with the stone. Years later his sister told me that the brother told that I hit him with the stone, but the family got the story from the brother who was in the game, and he saw it differently. I never saw that person for more than 50 years. He had to introduce himself to me and reminded me of the incident on the basketball court. In a friendly way he said he still believed I hit him with that stone. I told him I often wondered where he got that stone, because Walker was in a flatland country and I have not seen another stone within five miles of Walker. The boy came from one of the finest families in the county, and all the children did well in life.

In the spring of 1930, our son was two years old, and my wife Wilma and I decided he was old enough for her to re-enter the teaching profession. We wanted to locate in a community where we could both teach in the same school. I told the county superintendent of our plans… In a few days I learned that a principal’s job was open in the Newark area and there would be a teaching position for Wilma. We made application and were hired.

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This is Walker School in 1929. Principal Homer Fulbright is at left rear. The teacher at right is Ina McBride, who married William Leach, and both taught in White County for many years. Both also served as president of the White County Historical Society, as did their son Bill, who provided this photograph. The names of a few students on the back row weres written on a similar print in the Leach collection: The girl in the checkered blouse (fourth person from the left) is Doris Sego; to her right is Justine Gaines, and to her right is Eunice Sanders. The boy in overalls standing next to Miss McBride is Paul Powell and beside him (wearing scarf around her neck) is Marion Gaines.