Bowker Biography:
Tarnie G. Tarry

 

Tarnie Givens Tarry, author of A WOMAN’S LIFE: As Captured Through Poetry, will celebrate her 100th birthday on December 30, 2004. Her first and only book was published on her 89th birthday. A retired elementary school teacher, Mrs. Tarry lives in Virginia and rides her stationary bicycle every day.

Growing up in rural Nelson County, Virginia showed her how to work hard and gave her an appreciation for education. As the daughter of a former slave and school teacher, Tarnie felt very secure on the family’s farm, surrounded by her seven siblings. Her elementary education took place in a one-room school house, but her mother also taught her at home using selected books. Since Nelson County provided no high school for African Americans during the early 1900's, her family sent her to Washington, D.C. to live with an older brother, his wife, and children. In Washington, she graduated from Dunbar High School, where her best friend was the sister of Dr. Charles R. Drew. She received her B.A. and teaching certificate from Minor Teachers College in Washington. After career stints as a librarian and as a government employee, Tarnie spent most of her career years teaching in Virginia. When you talk with her you’re sure to hear of her early days teaching in a one-room school with children ranging in age from five to twenty.

For many years, Tarnie Tarry occasionally read her poetry in public, and audiences enjoyed hearing her clear, well-modulated voice. Throughout her life, she cherished poetry. Childhood years witnessed the first writing of rhymes, but most of the rhymes from this era were not saved. She wrote and threw away. Often, her mother admonished her to keep the verses so that others might enjoy them. During her years in government service, co-workers begged her to keep a notebook of her poetry. Alas, she began salvaging some of her verses as she contemplated a thought that kept nagging in her mind: You’ve got another job to do.

She realized that job left for her to do involved offering her poems for others’ enjoyment.

 

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