For most of her life, Rena Butler has been assisting and educating the citizens of Clarksdale and Coahoma County.
On Monday, a facility that will educate students whose goal will mirror her life’s work was dedicated in her honor.
The Rena Butler Health Sciences Annex will house Coahoma Community College students studying to be paramedics and EMTs, as well as those students assisting people with sleep apnea. The building will offer a simulation lab where students will be able to practice their skills on mannequins and offer more space for some of the college’s most popular programs.
Butler said her heart was “saturated with joy” and she was “honored beyond belief” with the attachment of her name on the facility located at 917 Ohio Ave. in Clarksdale.
“It’s well past time that we commemorate one who is so deserving,” said Dr. Valmadge Towner, president of the community college. “She is such a strong advocate for grass roots constituents.”
Butler currently serves as the assistant secretary for the Coahoma Community College Board of Trustees, a board on which she’s served some 30 years.
Dr. Vivian Presley, the former president at CCC, praised Butler for her longevity on the board, as well as the fact she was the first female board of trustees member.
“She’s been a beacon of light and champion of education for all people on all levels,” Presley said.
Butler worked in the Coahoma County School District for 40-plus years. A graduate of Coahoma Junior College, she earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from the University of Kansas. The Clarksdale native later earned a master’s in elementary education from Mississippi State University and also received an educational specialist degree in administration and supervision from Delta State University.
Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy said Butler has been a champion for women’s rights and breaking down barriers for African-American women her entire life.
“She has stood on what is right and just for our community,” he said of Butler, who is currently employed as a bailiff in the Coahoma County Circuit Clerk’s Office.
In addition, she serves as a mentor in the after-school program at the First Baptist Church and is also very active in her church, the Silent Grove Missionary Baptist Church. She’s an active member of the local graduate chapter of Zeta Phi Beta sorority, the Coahoma County Democratic Party, as well as a number of other community organizations.
Espy praised the college for honoring Butler and “giving people roses while they’re living.”
Towner said Monday’s dedication ceremony was the exclamation point to a five-year, $1.3-million process in which the community college revamped the building that previously served as the home for the county’s Department of Health Services.
Now, Towner said the approximate 100 students who are enrolled each year in health-care-related programs at the college will be able to use a “start of the art” building.
Beverly Overton, the dean of Health Sciences at CCC, said they had run out of room in the college’s neighboring Robert G. “Brick” Mason Health Sciences Building at 901 Ohio Ave.
She said students will start classes in the fall at the Butler annex, which she said offers “a better learning environment” as students will no longer be crowded. In addition, local fire departments who are in need of additional training will also be able to use the Butler annex.
Students studying respiratory care, nursing and other short-term programs will continue to study in the Mason building.
