Retired TISD choir director to receive honor
Retired choir director and counselor Marvin Brewster will be inducted into the Texarkana Independent School District Hall of Fame next month during the district’s annua l community breakfast.
Brewster, who served as choir director and counselor at TISD from 1962 to 1995, will receive the honor March 6 during the Texas Public Schools Week Community Breakfast at Texas High School, 2112 Kennedy Lane.
The breakfast is open to the public and starts at 7 a.m. in the Dan Haskins Student Center. Reservations are requested by Thursday and can be made by contacting Tina Veal-Gooch at 903-7943651, ext. 1013, or tvg@txkisd.net.
Brewster, who has five brothers, was born to William Lucas and Ollie Brewster. He grew up in the Iron Mountain neighborhood of Texarkana, Ark., and graduated from Washington High School in 1951 with a full music scholarship to Arkansas A&M University (now University of Arkansas) in Pine Bluff.
“The choir director from Arkansas A&M came to Washington High to hear one of our choir programs,” Brewster said. “He gave me a scholarship right then and there. That is the way I got through college—I sang my way (through).”
Brewster received his Bachelor of Arts in music in 1955. He completed his Master of Arts in music in 1967 at East Texas State University-Commerce, now Texas A&M University-Commerce.
His career in music education began in 1955 at Hollandale Public School District in Mississippi. After five years there, Brewster returned to teach music at Texarkana, Ark., School District from 1960-62. It was there he met third-grade teacher Frances Alton at W.T. Daniels Elementary.
“He would teach music every Thursday at the school, and that is how our paths crossed,” Frances Brewster said. By June 1961, the two were married.
Brewster made his way to Texarkana Independent School District in 1962, overseeing the eighth-grade choir at Dunbar High School. From 1968-71, he served as choir director for Westlawn and Pine Street junior high schools. By 1972, he was the choir director for Texas High School, where he remained until 1985. From 1986 until his retirement in 1995, Brewster served as counselor of Pine Street Middle School.
The educator also served as music minister at Lonoke Baptist Church from 19602014 and sang for many years with the Texarkana Regional Chorale. The Brewsters continued teaching after retirement by serving as substitute teachers for TISD.
“My parents encouraged all of us boys to get an education,” Brewster said. “Our mother sang in the church choir. We all loved music.”
Brewster told his daughters to go find something to do besides teach school, according to a TISD spokeswoman, but they work as school counselors at DeSoto ISD: Portia Brewster Smith at the high school and Margo Brewster James at the elementary level.
The TISD Hall of Fame award is given to a retired employee who had significant influence in the district and the community.