A long-time teacher in the Mountain Home School District is being remembered for the impact she had on her students and in the entire community. Glenda Small died Sunday at the age of 63 after a long battle with cancer.
Small spent much of her life in the Twin Lakes Area. She grew up in Pineville and graduated from Calico Rock High School in 1978. After later receiving a degree from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, she moved to Mountain Home in 1984 and began a teaching career spanning nearly three decades.
Small taught in the Mountain Home School District from 1984 to 2013 at several different grade levels. During an interview with KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News in 2018, she said she considered the kids she taught as the highlight of her career.
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Small said every time she moved up a grade during her time as a teacher, administrators would tell her she couldn’t hug her students as often as she did in the lower grades, and she found that hard to accomplish.
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Small’s retirement came as a result of the illness of her mother, who died nearly a month later. She went on to serve as a mentor at Guy Berry College and Career Academy, and she was also known to serve as a photographer for several events in the Mountain Home School District.
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Small’s contributions in the classroom and as a mentor earned her an induction into the Mountain Home Education Foundation Hall of Honor in 2018. Her time as a photographer for numerous sporting events will result in her being inducted posthumously into the MHHS Athletic Hall of Honor this fall.
Funeral arrangements for Glenda Small will be Saturday afternoon at 2 at First Baptist Church of Mountain Home. Visitation will be at the church Friday evening from 5 to 7. Burial will be at Hand Cemetery in Jordan.
She is survived by her husband, Terry Small; one daughter, Julie Gonten; her father, Bill Kankey; her brother, Joe Kankey; her twin sister, Brenda Nichols; and three brothers-in-law, David, Doug and Mike Small.
Donations can be made to the Glenda Small Memorial Fund at Anstaff Bank for the benefit of young people throughout northern Arkansas.
Arrangements are by Roller Funeral Home.
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