| Notes |
- The Buffalo News, January 23, 2020
Clydean Bass Amaker, 92, retired Buffalo teacher (Picture included)
Feb. 24, 1927 ? Jan. 12. 2020
Clydean Bass Amaker, a retired Buffalo teacher, died unexpectedly Jan. 12 while visiting her grandson in Toronto. She was 92.
Born Clydean Bass in Buffalo, she was the third of four children whose father owned a meat market and a painting business.
She was a graduate of Hutchinson Central High School and earned a bachelor?s degree in education from historically black Wilberforce College, later Central State University.
At Wilberforce, she became expert at typing. She toured the nation demonstrating her typing skills and teaching students how to type. She also earned praise as a backup singer for another Wilberforce student, soprano Leontyne Price.
Returning to Buffalo, she first taught at School 87 on Clinton Street, then became the first black teacher at School 23 on East Delavan Avenue in the 1960s.
Known to her students as ?Mrs. A,? she once became ill, lost her voice and was told by doctors to remain completely silent for 30 days or risk losing her voice permanently. She nevertheless came to her classroom every day and taught her second-graders without uttering a word, a feat acclaimed by not only her colleagues, but also the school superintendent. She retired in 1988.
At the age of 81, Mrs. Amaker returned to the classroom in Torchlight Academy, a charter school in Raleigh, N.C., where her daughter, Cynthia McQueen, is principal. She continued teaching until six weeks before her death.
During her 11-year tenure at Torchlight, she saw four generations of her family serve there. Her granddaughter, Shawntrice Andrews, is director of special education. A great-granddaughter, A?Shanee Port, was an early childhood teacher.
According to her daughter, she never smoked, drank alcohol or used ?bad words.?
Her daughter noted, ?Clyde was so proper that on her most recent vacation with her daughter and son-in-law, she strolled on the beach in Florida with her blouse buttoned up to her neck, long pants, stockings and shoes. When her daughter asked, ?Why don?t you wear sandals on the beach,? Clyde responded, ?A lady always wears stockings.? ?
The mother of two, she was married, divorced and remarried to Henry F. Amaker II, an entrepreneur who owned a taxi company, a sandwich shop and a dry cleaning business. He died in 1986.
In addition to her daughter, survivors include a sister, Beatrice Stenson; two grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
A celebration of her life will be held at noon Saturday, Jan. 25, in Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1525 Michigan Ave.
|
Bassett Family Association Database
1927 - 2020 (92 years)
, d. 1 Jan 1985, Buffalo, Erie County, New York