[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 13 (Friday, January 20, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E38]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING THE LIFE OF DR. WILLIE JAMES EPPS

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TED LIEU

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 20, 2023

  Mr. LIEU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor the 
life of Dr. Willie James Epps, who passed away on December 27, 2022. A 
Former Director of the East St. Louis Campus of Southern Illinois 
University-Edwardsville (SIUE), he was a nationally recognized expert 
in early childhood education. Born on January 26, 1946, Dr. Epps was 
raised on a farm in Tchula, Mississippi, the poorest town in the 
nation's poorest county. His parents, Jonas and Nancy Ellis Epps, 
though literate and landowners, had never gone to college but insisted 
their children pursue higher education. Dr. Epps attended racially 
segregated schools, graduating in 1963 from Tchula Attendance Center, 
which the town's white leadership denied designation as a high school. 
Majoring in elementary education, he graduated from Mississippi Valley 
State University in 1966, having worked part-time as a custodian.
  He then moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, where he taught sixth grade at 
Perkins Elementary School, the city's only primary school for Blacks, 
comprised of 400 young children and 30 teachers. At Perkins, he met 
Barbara Bacon, a 1966 graduate of Alcorn State University, who taught 
fourth and fifth grade. The two married at King Solomon Baptist Church 
in Natchez, Mississippi, on August 12, 1967.
  While earning a master's degree in elementary education at the 
University of Southern Mississippi, Dr. Epps served as Lexington 
Elementary School's principal in Lexington, Mississippi, before being 
promoted to assistant superintendent of the Holmes County School 
System. In 1970, he joined the faculty of Alcorn State University for a 
couple of years, before heading off to Kansas State University to 
pursue a Ph.D., which he was awarded in 1974.
  In the mid- to late-1970s, Dr. Epps worked at the U.S. Department of 
Health, Education, and Welfare in Washington, D.C., and as a faculty 
member at both Mississippi Valley State University and the University 
of South Alabama. After being recruited to the St. Louis region in 
1980, he was associated with SIUE for more than two decades. Dr. Epps 
initially was director of the National Science Awareness Demonstration 
Program and later was named director of the University's Head Start 
Program in St. Clair County. On behalf of the University, he applied 
for and received about $15 million annually from state, federal, and 
private grants.
  Dr. Epps assumed leadership of the East St. Louis Campus in 1994, 
retiring in 2001. During his administration he presided over tremendous 
growth, including the creation of SIUE East St. Louis Charter School, 
and securing $27 million for a new facility. Dr. Epps served as vice 
president of the Greater East St. Louis Community Fund, vice chair of 
the Logan College of Chiropractic Board of Trustees, and a member of 
the Education Commission of the States' Policy and Priorities 
Committee. He was a member of West Side Missionary Baptist Church. Phi 
Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand 
Lodge.
  He received numerous awards and honors, including Region V 
Outstanding Head Start Director of the Year from the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services, Outstanding Leader of St. Louis from the 
Center for Leadership of St. Louis, the Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Humanitarian Award from SIUE, and an Illinois State Senate Recognition 
on his retirement.
  Prior to struggling with poor health, Dr. Epps founded Southern 
Research Associates and became an educational consultant to 
historically Black colleges and universities. He was a dynamic public 
speaker, traveling throughout the United States to speak at educational 
conferences and traveling abroad to consult with educational leaders in 
South Africa and China.
  He also visited the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, among others. 
He was an avid fisherman and hunter. He loved playing the slot machines 
on the riverboats. Watching sports on television with family and 
friends was a favorite pastime.
  Surviving are his wife of 55 years, Dr. Barbara Bacon Epps, who 
retired from SIUE in 2001; a son, Hon. Willie J. Epps, Jr., a federal 
judge who married Mischa Buford Epps; a daughter, Beatryx Epps 
Washington, General Counsel of O.C. Tanner based in Salt Lake City, 
Utah, who married Vincent D. Washington; three grandchildren, Gabriela 
Washington, Cambridge Epps, and Solomon Washington; two sisters, Dr. 
Fannye Epps Love and Dorothy Epps; and a brother, Sam Epps. His 
parents, Jonas and Nancy Ellis Epps, and siblings George Ellis and 
Alice Mae Epps Watson, predeceased him.

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