Teaching and Traveling

By AMBER POMPA

Elva Tapp has seen more in her 90 some years on this earth than most could get the opportunity to see in two lifetimes.

Tapp taught school for some 44 years, only recently leaving the scene in 2000, when she quit substitute teaching. She’s visited all 50 states in the United States and had the opportunity to travel to 26 foreign countries.

Tapp was born in White Oak near Longview to George David Satterwhite and Mollie Naoma (McQueen) Satterwhite.

Her father was a farmer who felt a draw to the west. Tapp’s mother, however said ‘No,’ but like most men, Tapp’s father ignored her and moved several miles west every few years.

“We lived in Rose Ward, then Winnsboro, where I started school,” said Tapp. “I was in the second grade when we moved to Harton, some six miles east of Commerce.”

Once Tapp reached the fourth grade her father moved them to Wolfe Creek, three miles east of Greenville, where they lived for a year before becoming residents of Cash.

It was here, in 1929, that her father passed away, leaving Tapp’s mother to raise six girls and four boys by herself.

Once Tapp completed the eighth grade she was sent to Quinlan to attend school there, as Cash only taught through the eighth grade.

“My brother, Wilburn began driving a school bus for Greenville, so he transferred all of us to GISD (the Greenville Independent School District),” she said. “I graduated from Greenville High School in January 1936.”

From there Tapp attended Wesley Junior College, where she graduated in 1938.

“My daddy, when he passed early, told my mother to see that we all went to college,” said Tapp. “People didn’t go to college then, but we did. All but two of my brothers went to college.”

After graduating from Wesley Junior College, she married Glenn Tapp and moved to Greenville while her husband labored away at the Ford Mechanic Shop. It wasn’t too long he got the chance to be head mechanic at Gus Hooks Shop in Farmersville, and it was time to move again.

“After graduating from Wesley Junior College, I didn’t want any more schooling,” said Tapp. “I fooled around, got married and had a boy. When I went to a family reunion at my mothers I noticed everybody had rings, clothes and everything and I didn’t have much, so I went back to college. My boy was four when I started at East Texas State Teachers College in Commerce.”

She graduated from there in the fall of 1954 and, almost immediately, was hired for a second grade teaching position in McKinney, where she taught for three years, commuting from Farmersville.

“Teaching ran in the family,” she said. “Every member of my family, with the exception of two brothers, were teachers.”

In 1957, the couple moved to Texas City, where two of Tapp’s sisters were teaching. Tapp’s got a second grade teaching position at La Marque Independent School District, and remained there for 20 years before retiring.

“I began substitute teaching at La Marque and Texas City,” said Tapp. “I subbed mostly in elementary schools.”

Tapp and her husband had previously purchased some land in Cash and the pair decided to build a house on the property and returned in October 1983.

It didn’t take Tapp long to get antsy, so she began subbing again for GISD, Caddo Mills and Boles Home.

“I was hired a lot for high school at this point,” she said. “I really enjoyed teaching there.”

Tapp’s husband, Glenn was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease not long after returning to Caddo Mills, forcing Tapp to wrap up her subbing career in order to care for him. He passed in 2001.

It was during the 70s and 80s when Tapp did most of her traveling, leaving her husband at home due to his fear of flying,

“I’ve been to all 50 states in the U.S.,” she said. “I even drove to Alaska pulling a camper behind our truck. That was a nice trip. Later I went to Hawaii with a church tour group from Dallas. It was so beautiful there.”

“The first country I went to was the Holy Land,” she said. “Oh, Lord it was something. I was attending the First Baptist Church in La Marque and a group from Houston was going over there, but needed six more to go. He was trying to get Billy Graham’s tour director once we got over there, but it didn’t look likely. I guess we were just lucky, though, because we got him.”

Before they visited the Holy Land, the tour stopped off in Paris, France for a day, followed by Rome, Italy and Greece.

“After spending two days in Greece we took a flight to the Holy Land,” she said. “We were taken to many places the average person never gets to see. I love it there. It was everything I though it would be.”

Tapp toured Mount Olive, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee and the Wailing Wall, where many wrote prayers onto pieces of paper and put them in the cracks of the wall.

“It was wonderful to walk where Jesus walked,” she said. “I even got to visit the stables where Jesus was born.”

After eight days touring the Holy Land, the tour flew to Lucerne, Switzerland, took a boat ride across the river there and up into the mountains.

Next, Tapp went to Egypt, where she toured the Nile River and the areas around it including Luxor, Aswan, Alexandria and Abu Simble, followed by Rome, Paris and London.

Some time later, a friend convinced her to go with her to India.

“I didn’t particularly want to go, but I went anyway,” she said. “We flew to San Francisco to join the rest of the tour and then flew to Thailand, then on to India. We traveled all over India and then to Nepal.”

While in India, Tapp go to view first-hand the Taj Mahal.

“I had studied it in school, but never though I’d get to see it for real, but I did,” she said. “It was something else. The sun was setting and it was so lovely and my heart was so light. That was one of the most memorable moments I experienced overseas.”

Tapp has been to many different lands and seen some truly wondrous things, more than can be put to paper. God has blessed Tapp, and she believes he will continue to do so until he calls her home.

Currently Tapp still resides in Cash, in the home that she and her husband built. With the help of Nora Baham, who has become like family, Tapp has everything she needs and is well taken care of, though she does spend a good deal of time to herself, though she’d never say she’s alone.

“When God called my husband home, and I had to live alone, I’d hear all kinds of noises at night,” she said. “I got on my knees and asked God to clear my fears, come into my house and live with me and He has. I’m not alone, anymore. God, Jesus and the Holy Sprit are with me, along with the Angels. He’s with me always and I’m not afraid anymore.”