‘A quiet, steady flame’ Thelma Mothershed-Wair dies at 83

CARBONDALE, Il. (KBSI) – Thelma Mothershed-Wair, of the Little Rock Nine, died at 83 years old on Saturday, October 21, 2024.

Mothershed-Wair was one of nine African-American students who integrated an all white high school in 1957, and became known as the Little Rock Nine.

She earned her bachelors degree in home economics education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and her master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

An SIU Carbondale professor in the department of Africana studies, Father Joseph Brown met Mothershed-Wair in 2003 when he interviewed three of the Little Rock Nine. He described her as the quiet, steady flame of the group.

“The Little Rock Nine, they were not just a story in a book or a film on public television; they were people who walked on this campus,” Brown said. “They were not 35 year old people who had degrees in sociology and public administration. They were teenagers who said, we’re going to make a way out of no way.”

Speaking of the example set by the Little Rock Nine, Father Brown shared a message for young people.

“You are our present and our future,” Father Brown said. “You have to teach us and we have to teach you, but ask us what you need to know and we will show you how we did it. That’s what Thelma Mothershed-Wair did until the day she died and she’s going to keep on doing it after her death.”

Brown said a song to sing in memory of Mothershed-Wair is E.B. Lewis’ This Little Light of Mine.

“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. Everywhere I go, I’m going to let it shine,” Father Brown recited.