NEWPORT-One of Cocke County's leading educators for many years has died.

Letty Bryant, 95, died Friday, November 9, in North Carolina, after a short period of declining health.

She was born April 14, 1917, in Boone, North Carolina, third of five children of Simon Syvannis Rogers and his wife Ida Genetta Van Dyke.

Her father died when she was six years old, and her mother later remarried.

Although the family's farm supported the group, there was little extra money and no high school close enough for the children to attend. As a result, she boarded at Crossnore High School from 1931-1935, an institution operated by Dr. Eustace Henry Sloop and Dr. Mary Martin Sloop.

For more details, please see the Tuesday edition of the Newport Plain Talk.