Donald Byers

George Gilliam: You were quoted at some places as saying Jackson P. Burley will always be something that I cherish and something I’ll always be fighting for.

Donald Byers: That’s right.  Burley, a lot of times when people talk about Burley, the first thing they talk about is they talk about the sports.  They talk about the football program, which that -- and they were -- they -- I mean they held a record in 1956 of nobody even scoring on them.  That’s a right there.  A lot of people know Burley by that name, but to me, Burley was more than just a sport -- sports school.  We had great, great teachers.  I’m so proud, so proud of our teachers, administrators because they were people that cared about you, they showed it, they let you know.  And if you were there to get an education, then they were going to see to it that you got what you needed.  They not only would work with you during their hours, but they invited you to -- if you could to -- they would stay with you after hours and help you.  I’ve even had two teachers were -- that we come by their home and work with them to get what I needed to get done.  So I have a lot of respect for those teachers, and that’s one of the things that I really think that made Burley great because Burley put out some good people.  They had people who went to Burley who ended up being lawyers, doctors, and a lot of professional-type people, and so...  And they can attribute that to the education that they got from Burley.  Even though they went to college, but they wouldn’t have made it in college if they hadn’t got that education from Jackson P. Burley.