From the WGHF Archives 02.19.15

Family and friends gathered to celebrate William Singleton Maxey’s retirement as principal from Charles R. Drew High School in 1965. Front row, from left: Geneva Grant, Eva Holt and Grover Walton Jr. Back row, from left: Juanita Harris, Mizell Triplett, Grover Walton, unknown and Hattie Mitchell. 

Maxey and his wife, Juanita Coney Maxey, came to Winter Garden to the Winter Garden School for the Colored in 1937. He served as principal. It was later named Winter Garden Junior High School. The school was eventually moved and expanded and rechristened Charles R. Drew High. Mr. Maxey served as principal for 28 years until his retirement in 1965. He died July 20, 1980. Mrs. Maxey taught for 45 years, retiring in 1982. She died March 11, 2009, at 103 years of age.

Be sure and stop by the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation’s new History Research and Education Center to view the exhibit in honor of Black History Month. “Despite the Obstacles,” on display in Heller Hall, documents through photographs the efforts toward educating African-American students in the decades before integration.

The Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, which seeks to preserve our heritage and architecture while creating new cultural experiences, is celebrating its third decade with the debut of its new History Research and Education Center.