Lifelong educator is honored in Topeka's library

TOPEKA (KSNT) - A local library is honoring a lifelong resident and teacher my keeping her name alive.

Monday, family, friends and community members gathered for the ribbon cutting of the "Beverly J. Thompson" team room located in the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library (TSCPL). TSCPL CEO Marie Pyko told 27 News Thompson exuded literacy and learning, so its only fitting that she's being remembered in a place she spent a lot of time.

Thompson was a teacher for Topeka public schools for 30 years, a mentor to many and an active user of the public library. Her children say this room will be an extension of her values for anyone who uses it.

"She believed in the power of learning and books and so this is a place that continues that," Jennifer Thompson Redmond, Thompson's daughter, said. "So everyone that walks into that room, whether their studying or meeting, they're really continuing what she believed in and what she worked so hard for."

"It is special," Emmett W. Thompson II, Thompson's son, said. "It's part of our roots here in Topeka that we're proud of. We're very proud of our mother and all that she did and all that she did for us and so, it's just special."

Thompson helped start the annual “African American Read-In” at the library.