Galveston teacher infused lives with music
GALVESTON — Izola Ethel Fedford Collins, a musician and educator who wrote a published history of Juneteenth, died this week at Jennie Sealy Hospital in Galveston of heart failure. She was 87.
Collins, known for teaching music to generations of Galveston children, got the idea for her book after stumbling upon her grandfather’s meticulously detailed journals, said her daughter, June Pulliam of Galveston.
As a child, Collins watched her grandfather, Ralph Albert Scull, write in his journal every night. After completing his journal entry, Scull would pray.
Scull arrived in Galveston in 1865 and his eyewitness accounts of life on Galveston Island formed the basis of his granddaughter’s book, “Island of Color: Where Juneteenth Started.”
The title refers to June 19, 1865, the date when a Union Army general read an order enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation, issued two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln but unknown to Texas slaves until the Civil War ended.
“She discovered there was a gold mine in there,” Pulliam said.
‘Always there’
Scull had recorded detailed sections of his journals about schools, churches and politics. Collins began working on the book in 1995 and completed it in 2000, doing research in Galveston and Houston libraries and interviewing survivors of the 1900 storm, said Valencia Arceneaux, one of Collins’ closest friends.
Collins also dabbled in poetry, publishing two books of verse: “Divine Light Never Goes Away” and “I Know That’s Right.”
Born in Galveston on Oct. 26, 1929, to a family of educators, Collins graduated from the segregated Central High School at 14 and from Prairie View A&M University at 18. She obtained her master’s degree in music from Northwestern University in Illinois.
She was a gifted musician, playing trumpet with an all-girl jazz band that toured the East Coast while attending Prairie View.
After returning to Galveston, she married Roy Lester Collins Jr., on Dec. 26, 1952. She taught music, leading bands and choirs in several public schools and at her church, Reedy Chapel AME, while giving piano lessons on the side.
Music infused her life and that of her family. “Music was always there,” Pulliam said. She remembered that on many evenings the house was filled with the sound of jamming musicians who had stopped by for a visit.
“Music was a fun thing in our house,” she said. “It was very common that there would be impromptu dance sessions.”
Collins was founding director of the Galveston Heritage Chorale and a member of the Galveston Arts Commission.
The year before she died, Collins wrote a symphony, “Galveston Survives,” for the Galveston Symphony Orchestra; she directed it during a public performance at The Grand 1894 Opera House.
Teacher of the year
Collins was elected to the Galveston school board in 1984 and remained on the board for nine years, completing her final year as board president.
She was teacher of the year in 1987, and in 2006 the Galveston Historical Foundation gave Collins the Steel Oleander Award, recognizing women who have made exceptional contributions to Galveston.
In 2011, then-Houston Mayor Annise Parker presented Collins with a proclamation making June 19, 2011, “Izola Ethel Fedford Collins Day” in Houston.
In addition to Pulliam, Collins is survived by a daughter, Cheryl Prayton, 51, of Fort Worth; a son, Roy Collins III, 60, of Hartford, Conn.; and seven grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband.
A wake was held Friday morning at Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church in Galveston. Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Moody Memorial Methodist Church, 2803 53rd St, Galveston. Fittingly, she will be remembered on the day that Galveston marks Juneteenth and the end of slavery in the United States with a parade and other events.