Edwina Welch retires from Gainesville School after 22-year teaching career

Edwina Welch is an inspiration for anyone who thinks it's too late to start over or too hard to overcome challenges that stand in the way of a dream. Edwina retired last month after teaching for 22 years – quite an accomplishment for a woman who dropped out of high school at age 16 and had two children by the time the rest of her class graduated in 1977. 

She and her husband, Harold, had three kids by the time Edwina started driving to Ava for GED classes. It was hard, "but I was determined to do it," she said. 

She learned that trait of strong determination from her hard-working parents, the late E. J. and Faye Hampton. Her dad was a farmer and the beloved pastor in the small church at Souder. Her mother helped E. J. minister to the little congregation while also teaching for 33 years. She began in the one-room schools at Souder and Rockbridge and continued in Gainesville when the rural schools consolidated. She also taught in Ava. 

Faye Hampton died in 2022 at age 85; E.J. died in 2024 at age 88. They were married 64 years and had four daughters.

Edwina said her mother, the teacher, "threw a fit" when Edwina dropped out of high school But she was surely proud of when Edwina earned that GED, scoring so high on the exam that she was offered a full-ride scholarship to what is now Missouri State University. It was a very tempting offer. But her family was growing, and getting a degree had to wait. 

As the years passed, she and Harold became the parents of eight children – five boys and three girls. One son, Marty, died in an accident in 1995.

In 1999, Edwina was working at a factory in Ava when she took the first steps toward getting that long-postponed degree. While she continued to work in the factory, care for her children still at home and support Harold in his work on their 160-acre farm, she enrolled in night classes at Drury University's Ava facility. 

At age 38, Edwina, mother of eight, became a college freshman. Four years later, in 2003, with her bachelor's degree earned, she started teaching in Gainesville Elementary School. Continuing her role as an overachiever, she also enrolled in a two-year master's degree program at Southwest Baptist College, completing online courses from home and then attending summer school on campus in Bolivar.

She began her career teaching third grade and then continued into higher grades – fourth, fifth and sixth – as time passed. Eventually, she taught fifth and sixth grade math.

 Students who struggled with the subject got extra attention. "I found that a lot of kids just need encouragement. They can accomplish a lot if they have someone to support them," she said. "I took the little underdogs under my wing and tutored them," she said.

Years later, those former "little underdogs," now grown, "are the ones who stop me in the grocery store and say hello or tell me thank you," she said.  

Edwina taught 16 years in Gainesville then spent three years in the Ava district and came back to Gainesville for her last three years. The Gainesville's school "always felt like home," she said. "It's just a special place – the way they treat the staff and the community. The way they pray together. It's special."

Now that she's retired, Edwina wants to spend more time enjoying her children and their families, which now include 23 grandchildren and nine great-grands. They all live within the area. She also plans to help her husband, who's now disabled, in running what she calls their "Old MacDonald's farm," complete with cattle, chickens and turkeys. She wants to do some gardening and maybe some quilting – "or at least try to," she said.

The journey Edwina took to a 22-year teaching career might not be one she would recommend to others, but she also doesn't regret any of that exhausting journey. She appreciates the insights it gave her. 

"I think sometimes those people who go straight from high school to college to education, or whatever career, don't see the struggle of a lot of the people out here," she said. Edwina's experience helped her connect with the hardworking families of her students because she didn't just see the struggle. She lived it.