Mary White Littrell’s teaching career spanned over five decades, and when she finally retired in May 2025, she was reluctant to do so.

Littrell was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognized her dedication to her students and fellow staff members, at the Simmons’ Stables annual Barn-B-Que and auction Sunday.

It was a complete surprise that was organized by her Simmons’ Sables Preservation Fund Inc. co-president Bobette Balser Wilson, her fellow board members and her family.

“I am just so honored, and it's been a privilege to play a role in kids’ futures,” Littrell said.

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, the unsuspecting Littrell was honored with a cake, a paver for her dedication to the stables’ preservation, a handmade “gold medal,” and a stick horse that former Eugene Field principal Melanie Richter said she could ride off into retirement.

“I never thought I wanted to be a teacher, but I always had people tell me I should be a teacher and I just finally decided that I would,” Littrell said.

Littrell, who had a bachelor's degree from Culver-Stockton University, started her teaching career in Princeton, Missouri, where she began working with children with learning disabilities.

“I was working with some children who were very intelligent,” Littrell said. “I could tell that they were intelligent, but they were having trouble learning.”

And that piqued her interest.

Littrell explained that learning disabilities were a relatively new thing at the time and in order to better understand her students, she decided to go back to school.

Since she loved the challenge of figuring out what would help her kids the most, Littrell obtained a master’s degree in learning disabilities from the University of Missouri.

In 1978, she moved to Mexico and accepted a job as a Special Services teacher at Eugene Field Elementary, where she taught for 30 years.

“I enjoyed seeing children be successful and start to feel good about themselves and gain confidence,” Littrell said.

Melanie Richter, former principal of Eugene Field, said Littrell was such a good teacher that she could teach a rock to read.

Working with children with learning disabilities was her love and when she retired in 2008, Littrell quickly realized that she was not ready.

So when she got the call from Saint Brendan’s Catholic School asking if she would be interested in a teaching position, she jumped at the chance.

“I worked with Title I students who had difficulties with reading skills and that’s just my passion,” Littrell said.

Seventeen years and three grandchildren later, Littrell found herself retiring once more.

“It was really difficult for me to quit because this has been my identity for 50 years,” Littrell said.

She explained that she made the decision so she could spend more time with her grandchildren, be more involved in the preservation of Simmons’ Stables and explore things she may want to do in the future, but she will always love teaching.

“There has been so much new research and development in brain research in the last five to 10 years,” Littrell said. “ I wish I would have known some of those things that I learned when I first started teaching.”

Surrounded by her friends, family and community, in the very barn she continually fights to preserve, Littrell celebrated her impact on children’s lives.