‘She challenged everyone to be better.’ Charlotte woman was trailblazer for NC child care

One Charlotte woman’s persistence to raise child day care standards in North Carolina exemplifies the saying “to teach is to touch a life forever.”

Sylvia Eagle was a champion of mandatory child care licensing, fighting for a decade to get the first licensing law passed in 1971. The entrepreneur and children’s advocate died Aug. 3 at the age of 98.

“My brother-in-law (John Kibler) likes to say: “If you have a child in child care today in North Carolina, you have Sylvia Eagle and others like her to thank for passing the licensing law in its initial stage,” her son, Bob Eagle, told The Charlotte Observer.

Eagle also helped start and was the first president of both the NC Day Care Association and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Day Care Association.

“It’s amazing to me all these years have passed and people continue to follow my mother’s exploits because she was something else,” Bob Eagle said.

Expanding child care options

His mother’s career in child care career started in 1950 watching Bob, his sister, Diane, and a neighbor’s child. As word spread, a year later, there were five children in her home and Eagle hired her first employee.

Five years later, their two-bedroom home at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Westover Street was converted into classrooms and Kiddie Korner Day Schools officially opened.

Daughter Diane Kibler said at that time, there were few day care options available.

“She realized there were a lot of mothers who did not have a choice as to whether they went back to work or not,” Kibler said.

In 1955, the family moved out and turned the house into a day care center. Five years later, the house was removed and replaced with a two-story brick center that could accommodate 120 children.

“It was the first building in the state of North Carolina built for the purposes of day care,” Kibler said.

Kiddie Korner Day Schools grew to nine centers with 228 employees serving about 1,200 children each week, Eagle’s children said. The centers were open for nearly 50 years, with both children working alongside her until they sold the business in 1999.

“I’ll always be thankful for the things I learned from her while starting my child care career at Kiddie Korner,” Gerrianne Holland said online at Dignity Memorial about her career that started there 43 years ago.

When Eagle was building her business, women weren’t allowed to take out bank loans and her husband had to cosign. In the 1960s, Kiddie Korner opened three private schools for children of all ages, and all races at a time of segregation in the South.

“She did things that at the time, women just didn’t do,” Kibler said. “She challenged everyone to be better.”

Kiddie Korner Day Schools also partnered with Central Piedmont Community College to offer child care college credit classes.

“Mrs. Ingram (Eagle) was a pioneer for early childhood education in Charlotte,” CPCC early child care program chair Kelli Fitzgibbons said.

Lasting legacy

Decades later, some of the teachers still get together regularly and reminisce about “happy times” at Kiddie Korner.

“I have such fond memories of the years I taught at Kiddie Korner and the friendships I made while there,” Pam Ussery wrote in a message online at Dignity Memorial.

Eagle was a “mother” to many.

“A lot of the morals I have today are a result of the way that she taught me,” Linda Westerfield wrote online at Dignity Memorial.

And her children remember their mother’s giving nature, as well, saying she would pick up restaurant tabs for people or even the time she bought a piano for a living center in western North Carolina, where she played for residents for more than 30 years.

“This was a multi-talented woman,” Kibler said. “She was all about children, but she was also all about music.”

Raised by a Methodist minister, at age 10, Eagle began playing for church services after the pianist failed to show up on time for a revival. Her love for tickling the ivories continued at Aldersgate living center even in the weeks before her death, Bob Eagle said.

“She composed a book of music that choirs could sing, self-published it, and sent it to every Methodist church in western North Carolina,” Kibler said.

The Sylvia Ingram Eagle Early Childhood Scholarship at Central Piedmont Community College that was set up five years ago will honor 25 students this fall. The scholarship honors Eagle’s dedication to child care and education with a far-reaching impact.

“(The scholarship) has given me the opportunity to fulfill one of my biggest dreams, which is to continue my studies here in this country,” said CPCC student Ana Luisa Delgado Rivett of Mexico.

A celebration of life service will be held at 2 p.m. Sept. 10 at First United Methodist Church, 501 N. Tryon St.

This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 8:00 AM.