'If you work hard, you can go anywhere,' Mom says. Her girls now have college degrees
Latishia Webber’s mother insisted she go to Clemson University, sight unseen, to prove to others in South Carolina’s educationally deprived “Corridor of Shame” that it can be done.
The December graduation ceremony was the third for Daraleen Webber. Three of her four girls now have college degrees.
It’s been the focus of her life. And it hasn’t been easy.
Daraleen Webber raised the girls as a single mom. For 19 years she rode the 5:45 a.m. Palmetto Breeze bus to Hilton Head Island for work, and still uses the bus sometimes. She works two shifts and virtually all holidays at the Hilton Head Diner, waiting tables and hostessing. She’s been there since 1995, and she’s family.
She’s also worked at Popeye’s, Wal-Mart, Kroger, McDonald’s — even on a construction job at Arthur Blank’s oceanfront mansion.
She lived a number of years in subsidized housing, paying more rent than her neighbors because she worked. Last year, she took her first vacation, a weekend trip to Universal Studios.
She can’t drive because she has severe cornea problems. She has no health insurance. She has debt. She says her credit has not always been good.
But her children were never in daycare, and they were cheerleaders and played ball and never missed a class trip or church trip. Daraleen Webber worked her life around what she calls “Team Webber.”
Also on the team are Gabrielle Allen, the oldest, who graduated cum laude with a degree in physics from Benedict College in Columbia and is now working on a master’s degree in accounting online. She spent six years in the U.S. Army Reserves. “She’s Mommy’s proud soldier,” Daraleen said.
Krisinda Webber earned a biology degree from Allen University in Columbia and is a respiratory therapist with an eye on a master’s degree.
Patrishia Webber, Latishia’s twin, now wants to enroll at the Technical College of the Lowcountry to study early-childhood education.
“Our mother supported us monetarily and emotionally,” Latishia Webber, who earned a mathematics degree at Clemson, said. “She’s always very encouraging. I can call and ask and she will make it happen.”
The new teacher
Latishia Webber remembers the day the new math teacher showed up at Hardeeville High School.
It was mid-year and they had already had three or four other teachers. No one expected the new one to last.
But Michelle Gordon was from the Lowcountry, a graduate of Estill High, with a feel for the challenges her freshmen faced well beyond the postulates and theorems of honors geometry.
“She was extremely young,” Latishia Webber remembers. “I wanted to be like her.”
Latishia sensed that Gordon actually cared about them, and pushed them hard, saying, “I’m not going to let you fail.”
“I told her, ‘You have the thing you need most: a made-up mind,’ ” Gordon said. “She was just determined and focused. I wanted her to see that she had the power to influence others by her example, and she chose to be a good example.”
Gordon didn’t want her students to fall into a small-town way of looking at the world, never seeing what is beyond. If they want to come back, great, but they need to see over the horizon, Gordon said.
“It truly takes a lot of strength, when challenges come, to stay focused,” Gordon said.
Gordon is now the math coordinator for the Beaufort County School District.
The two have kept in touch since Latishia graduated as salutatorian of the class of 2011.
“I am Godly proud of her,” Gordon said last week.
Motivational speaker
Daraleen Webber’s girls have always been around positive people.
They have an aunt who went to Georgia Tech, an uncle with a big job at a bank, a cousin working on a doctorate. Latishia’s aunt and godmother, Patricia Givens, has a degree from Temple University.
Volunteers from Sun City came into their classrooms at an early age.
A Sun City family gave the girls their first home computer.
Customers at the Hilton Head Diner, which never closes, know them and encourage them.
Word of God Christian Center in Hardeeville was a pillar for them.
They got scholarships, including one named for Clementa Pinckney, a child of Jasper County whose eulogy was delivered by the president of the United States.
Daraleen’s mother was a career aide at a Hardeeville school. Three years ago she saw her house burn to the ground, and then rebuilt by her church. She’s also seen four of her seven grandchildren get four-year degrees and two join the military.
But mostly, the girls have their mother, who while taking a mid-afternoon break at the diner sounds like a motivational speaker.
“I was never afraid to work,” she said. “I’ve always had a second job. If you work hard, you can go anywhere.”
“You do what you have to do,” she said.
“There’s no excuse for not doing well these days,” she said.
“Parenting is important,” she said. “If they fall behind, find something to help.”
“I gave the kids books at Christmas,” she said.
“My kids are grown women now, and we are still the closest. We dance. We clown around,” she said. “I told the girls I’m your mom when you need me and your daddy when you need me. I always have their back.”
“The diner is a big part of my success. I overhear successful people here talking about their children’s colleges and careers and I wanted that for my kids,” she said.
“I wanted my kids to be able to dictate their future. If they want to leave a job, they can do that. They have options. They’ve got a much better chance than I had,” she said.
“I’ve sat through three college graduation ceremonies, and it’s a very overwhelming experience,” she said. “I look around at these very rich people and it tells you that even if you have no money, you can still succeed.”
David Lauderdale: 843-706-8115, @ThatsLauderdale
This story was originally published April 4, 2017 at 10:07 AM with the headline "'If you work hard, you can go anywhere,' Mom says. Her girls now have college degrees."