Mary Spivey wanted a replacement copy of her Morehouse College diploma, but she didn’t want to make a fuss or bring attention to herself. So she kept quiet.
But it was no secret that she loved Morehouse and valued the lessons she learned while in school there.
“She was proud that she could say she graduated from Morehouse,” said her daughter, Yvette Spivey Cooper, ofAtlanta. “That was one thing she would talk about, but she didn’t talk much about herself.”
Spivey became interested in attending the traditionally male college after she learned her mother took classes there in the early 1900s. Family records indicate Spivey began her college studies when she was 15 and graduated when she was 19 with the class of 1933. School records say Spivey was the last living member of a group of 33 women who enrolled in and graduated from Morehouse between 1929 and 1933.
Though Spivey never asked, her alma mater learned of her desire for a replacement diploma and gave her one at the school’s 2011 graduation ceremony.
Mary Cecelia Robinson Spivey of Atlanta died Feb. 22 at Northside Hospital of natural causes. She was 99.
A funeral was held Saturday at Calvary United Methodist Church, Atlanta, followed by burial at South-View Cemetery. Murray Brothers Funeral Home, Cascade Chapel, was in charge of arrangements. Read Full
