Oral history with Mr. Dave Dunaway

              Oral history with Mr. Dave Dunaway
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.
Funding provided by a National Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
The transcript is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright. PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
David Lafayette Dunaway was born January 2, 1927, near the Enon community in Walthall County to Robert Prentis Dunaway and Vetha Elizabeth Flanagan Dunaway. He graduated from high school at Tylertown in 1944 and enrolled at Mississippi State University on a football scholarship. His education was interrupted by a call to service in the U. S. Army in 1945. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in February 1946 at Fort Benning, Georgia, and dispatched to Germany to join the occupational forces. While posted in Nuremberg Mr. Dunaway had the opportunity to attend some of the Nazi war crimes trials.
Following his discharge in 1947, Mr. Dunaway returned to Mississippi State University, where he graduated in 1950. He completed his master's degree in education in 1951. In 1950 he joined the Greenville Public School System as a teacher and coach. In 1955 he became assistant principal of Bass Junior High School and in 1964 was appointed principal of Solomon Junior High School. Mr. Dunaway served in this capacity until his retirement in 1979. He then became director of the Mississippi Delta Junior College Continuing Education Center in Greenville and remained there until 1982, when he became superintendent of the Western Line School District in Washington County. He retired from that position on March 21, 1991.
During his years as an educator, Mr. Dunaway also worked as a basketball officiate and a sports broadcaster. He worked with other Greenville parents to establish a local school for children with cerebral palsy. He also taught in the Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education Program for several years.
Mr. Dunaway is married to the former Lura Belle Rimes of Tylertown, Mississippi, and they had six sons. They presently reside in Greenville.
Table of Contents
I. Family Background and Education
A. The Depression Years
B. Attending Mississippi State University
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