Diana Byrd of Conway
‘Mama Byrd’ makes being a mother a career
Some women were just born to be mothers, and Diana Byrd of Conway not only had four of her own, she’s been “Mama Byrd” to more than 150 children through Conway Cradle Care.
Byrd, 55, is executive director of the program, which provides day care, as well and mentoring and education programs, for Faulkner County high school students who become parents.
Byrd got married in 1974, a month shy of her 18th birthday.
“I was a teen bride, but I wasn’t a teen parent,” she said, sitting in her office at First Presbyterian Church in Conway, where the program is run.
She met her husband of 38 years, Randell, at church, but not in the usual way.
“You have to follow what you feel like God gives you, and you know what you’re good at — it’s always been kids for me.”
“He was actually my minister,” she said. “He was single, and he was a college guy.”
She was a senior at South Side Bee Branch High School and “steered away from him,” but women in the Mount Zion General Baptist Church in Morganton, including her grandmother, were determined to play matchmaker.
The couple waited until she was 21 to have children, and they had three boys and a girl.
A photo from the wedding of her daughter, Bethany, sits in Byrd’s office.
It’s her strong family bond and her
DIANA BYRD
Executive director of Conway Cradle Care
love of being a mother that led Byrd to her job working with children and teenage parents.
Byrd grew up in Morganton in Van Buren County, and her husband is from Bigelow in Perry County.
The couple got married and lived for about a year in Conway, where Byrd worked with Ott Insurance Co. before they moved to Indiana for Randell to finish his ministry degree at a Baptist college.
As most pastors’ families do, the Byrds moved around when the kids were young.
She didn’t know what all was involved in being a preacher’s wife. Most people thought it should involve playing the piano, which she doesn’t. Two of her children, Jeffrey and Bethany, are “extremely musical,” she said.
“I always gravitated toward the children’s ministry and babies,” Byrd said.
“You have to follow what you feel like God gives you, and you know what you’re good at — it’s always been kids for me.”
The Byrds also lived in Springfield, Ill., where Randell preached and she worked at a title company.
The family moved to Trumann in Poinsett County, then it was back to Conway and another move to Quitman.
“We felt like our kids needed stability,” she said.
They moved to Conway 22 years ago and still live in the same house. All four children graduated from Conway High School.
Byrd was one of three children, and Randell was one of nine.
She said her Grandmother Neal, her father’s mother, was “feisty,” and her Maw Maw Linn was “gentle and kind.”
Although she loved them both, Byrd said she is more like her maternal grandmother.
“I have always been a very calm, patient person, fairly mild-mannered,” she said.
“My mom was a major influence; she would do anything for her kids. If we needed a dress or something, she’d take one of her dresses and make us one,” Byrd said.
“I grew up a country kid. It was nothing for us to walk two miles down the road to Maw Maw Linn and Paw Paw’s house, and we could see Grandmother Neal’s house from ours. We’d spend Saturday night with Grandmother Neal, and we’d watch The Lawrence Welk Show, eat popcorn and drink Coke.”
When the Byrds moved back to Conway from Quitman, she got a job teaching 3- and 4year-olds at the Antioch Baptist Church day care.
“I was known as Ms. Diana. When it closed, in the ’80s, several of the people asked, ‘Would you be willing to watch my child in your home?’”
So, she did. Bethany, her daughter, was just starting school. Byrd would load up the three or four children she was baby-sitting and take them to the library and to all her children’s school functions.
“I never missed out on one single party my kids ever had,” she said.
No matter what the activity was — countless football games, choir and band concerts — Byrd and her husband were there.
“I see the lives of students here, and I know the life my children had,” she said. “That’s what gives me part of the hear t for the situation here, because that’s not always the case. My kids knew when they went to that football game, their parents were going to be in the stands.”
Byrd recalled one senior who had a baby and would wait in the parking lot for her mother to pick up her child so she could get on the band bus and participate.
“It just broke my heart,” Byrd said.
After a few years of having a day care in her home, Byrd was ready for a change. Parents weren’t happy when she told them about her decision.
“They loved Ms. Diana’s,” she said.
About two months later, Byrd got a call about Conway Cradle Care, which was looking for a director.
“I was not interested in being the director at all,” she said. “I didn’t want anything to do with running this place.”
Byrd was hired as a toddler teacher, but a year later, when the director left, the powers that be persuaded Byrd to take the position.
In 1999, she became executive director, and sometimes she still taught.
“As executive director, my heart has always been with the kids and not the administrative part, but as Conway Cradle Care has grown, I’ve been forced to do that and not as much in the child care,” she said.
“I, like a lot of other people, didn’t think a lot about teenage pregnancy. As I saw how [teenagers] interacted with their children at 14 years old, or just what their family situations were like, it was heartbreaking.”
The program is designed to educate students to prevent teen pregnancy and to help them finish school. If they have a second child, they aren’t allowed to use the day care anymore, although they can participate in the classes.
“I always tell them, ‘This is a decision that’s going to affect you the rest of your life,’” Byrd said.
As an example, Byrd said her 33-year-old son went into the military last fall to get into the Army band, and he had to go through basic training.
“I worried about him every day,” she said.
“I don’t care how old your kids are. A mom’s heart is you want their dreams to come true. That’s going to be first.”
She said all four children are successful in their own ways.
“They’re kind, no one’s ever called me from jail,” she said, laughing, “and they’re all so unique and different. They’re not kids; they’re wonderful young adults now.”
She has an empty nest, but Mama Byrd knows that’s the way it should be.
“I’m expecting to hear from all of them (today),” she said.