Taking decades of Natchez memories with him, Gilmer McLaurin leaves today for Danville, Ky., where he will live in a retirement community with family nearby.

A longtime Natchez educator and former superintendent of public schools, McLaurin, 97, admitted feeling sad over the move but excited about the new experience.

&uot;It’s the right thing for me to do,&uot; he said. &uot;It will be different. But Sarah and her family will be there.&uot;

Daughter Sarah Vahlkamp and her family live in Danville. &uot;We’ll just be glad to have him close,&uot; she said.

The Natchez-Adams County Board of Education honored McLaurin for his years of service by naming the former Montebello School in his honor. That was a highlight of his life but one of many memories.

&uot;You’ve got your personal life, but you also carry along your professional life,&uot; he said. &uot;Everything has worked out well.&uot;

The comfortable house on a corner lot in Montebello Subdivision has been home for 55 years. &uot;I hate to leave this house,&uot; he said.

McLaurin saw many changes in education during his career. &uot;That’s the story of public education in Natchez,&uot; he said.

He came to Natchez as a teacher in 1933 and helped coach athletic teams because the system had only one coach. &uot;But I was really interested in administration, and I went to school in the summers to get into that phase.&uot;

From the beginning, a solid school system with excellent faculty is what he remembers from his 40-plus years, McLaurin said.

&uot;You know, married teachers couldn’t teach in Natchez at the time I came. Then the war came along and changed all that,&uot; he said.

Teachers then &uot;were in complete control of their classrooms and had tremendous pride in the work of the school system. Margaret Martin was one of the best examples of those teachers.&uot;

To keep teachers up to date and to improve their skills, the school system brought college-level teachers to Natchez to give courses in the education field, he said.

&uot;We started bringing people to have workshops for us. They were from Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi.&uot;

He had to be careful, however, he said with a smile. &uot;We had some well-established people on our faculty. Pearl Guyton, for instance, wrote the Mississippi history book.&uot;

Recruiting the best faculty and administrators he could find was one of his top priorities as superintendent, McLaurin said. &uot;We brought some wonderful teachers and people to Natchez.&uot;

Retirement, difficult at first, became a joy, he said. &uot;My health has been good, and the years have just slipped by.&uot;

With his first wife, Jane McLaurin, he had 50 years of a happy marriage before her death. &uot;Family changes. You lose your wife, and you lose your partner for life.&uot;

However, he was fortunate, he said, to have a second wife, Beth Heard McLaurin, with whom he shared 16 years before her death.

&uot;I have all of those memories. They were both wonderful ladies,&uot; he said.

Friend Albert Metcalfe reminded members of Natchez Rotary Club on Wednesday of McLaurin’s departure today.

He praised McLaurin for the high standards with which he conducted both his personal and his professional life. &uot;I can’t say enough about how much he has done for Natchez and how many lives he has touched,&uot; Metcalfe said.