It seems Pauline Rich has made a career of being a “permanent substitute.” Back in the 1950s, she was asked by her employer to finish out the school year for a kindergarten teacher who had to move away.
Twenty-five years later, Rich retired from teaching kindergarten.
It has been much the same with teaching Sunday School.
“I think I must have been filling in for somebody when I first taught,” she recalls.
Only this time, 60 years later, she’s still at it. In fact, her church — Arbor Baptist in Pell City (St. Clair Association) — is so grateful for the six decades she has devoted to its Sunday School that the membership honored her with a tea.
In addition, the city declared Oct. 1, 2000, as Pauline Rich Day in Pell City to pay tribute to her contributions to her church and community. One of the first members of Arbor Baptist, Rich began teaching in Sunday School when she was 26. She taught the intermediates, she said, so she could keep an eye on her two sons.
Later, she taught a Sunday School class for married couples. Now, at 86, she teaches a class for ladies of all ages. And she suspects she’s the oldest in the class, which has an enrollment of 14.
Her years of keeping a close watch on her sons, Pete and Lamont, must have paid off. Lamont, she said, retired from a steel plant. And Pete was a coach at Pell City High School, where the football stadium is named in his honor. Both men attend Cropwell Baptist Church near Pell City.
Actually, though, Rich began teaching Sunday School very shortly after accepting Christ as her Savior.
“I wasn’t saved until I was 25 years old,” Rich said. Raised in a Methodist church, Rich drifted away from church in early adulthood.
But one night she felt drawn to a revival service at Arbor Baptist. It was then she realized her need to accept Jesus Christ as her Savior. She was baptized in Seddon Creek.
In the years following, she served as church clerk in addition to her responsibilities as a Sunday School teacher. For about five years, she was the devotional leader for the senior citizens group Jolly Elders at First Baptist Church, Pell City.
“I always studied the Bible a lot. … (Arbor Baptist) just kind of put me to teaching,” said Rich. Also during those years, she was a teacher in the kindergarten operated by Avondale Mills in Pell City.
Her tenures as a kindergarten teacher and a Sunday School teacher have been enlightening experiences for Rich, who is the grandmother of four and great-grandmother of 12.
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