Deanna Lowery says her love of teaching both academics and gymnastics comes from her parents.
“My love of gymnastics is there because my daddy and both my parents were schoolteachers and I love kids, so it’s an ideal situation to do something you love and be around kids and be able to be with my kids,” said Lowery.
Lowery, a Greenwood native, now resides in Winona with her husband of 22 years, Barry, and their two daughters, Elizabeth Claire and Emilee Catherine.
Deanna Lowery, 48, grew up in Greenwood and attended East Elementary School up until the eighth grade.
“My parents were teachers at East,” she said. “My daddy taught gymnastics at East and taught for Martha Geeslin. He had a gymnastics team at East when we were growing up, and when I was in about the fourth grade, I’d help him with the little kids.”
She graduated from Greenwood High School and began attending Mississippi Delta Community College, which is where she began dancing under the direction of Greenwood resident Betty Aden.
“I’ve been dancing since ’86,” said Lowery. “I never took dance in school. I was always in gymnastics.”
Lowery tried out for the MDCC dance team. She became a member and received a scholarship to dance for two years. She said it was Aden who gave her a love of dance.
Lowery continued dancing at Delta State University.
While at Delta State, she would come home to Greenwood on Fridays and teach at Martha Geeslin School of Dance.
She also taught gymnastics in Delta State’s Physical Education Department.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in general studies with an emphasis in physical education, she began working in the office at East Elementary. She was also hired by Aubrey Whittington to teach at Outer Limits Gymnastics.
While working at East, Lowery received her master’s degree in education at Mississippi Valley State University.
She began her teaching career in 2001 with the Leflore County School District.
Lowery is now a fourth-grade math and science teacher at Winona Elementary School and is the Winona Junior High School cheerleading sponsor.
She also is still working for Whittington’s gymnastics group. She serves as manager and teacher of Whittington’s Outer Limits Gymnastics of Winona.
In the past, she has served as the dance team sponsor at both Pillow Academy and Carroll Academy.
Lowery recently wrapped up another successful year of the Betty Aden Dance Camp, which was founded by her former dance teacher. Lowery has served as the camp’s director for about 15 years and has been involved with the camp since she was a student at MDCC. “It’s always been a summertime job,” she said. “A lot of girls would help her out in summer, and I just stayed with her.”
The camp, which is in its 35th year, is held in Greenwood and always has a large amount of participants ranging from 3 years old to 12th-graders.
“We get girls from Winona, Carrollton, Indianola, and we have girls coming from all over. They will stay with their grandparents to go to the dance camp,” she said.
Like her father, Lowery has passed down her passion for gymnastics and dance to her children.
Her oldest daughter, Elizabeth Claire, is a cheerleader at Delta State, and her youngest, Emilee Catherine, is a cheerleader at Winona High School.
Elizabeth Claire, a junior in college, helped teach this summer at the dance camp her mother runs. Emilee Catherine, a junior in high school, just completed her 14th year at the camp, a record.
Lowery is an active member at First United Methodist Church in Greenwood, where she serves at Vacation Bible School director and works in the children’s church.
“All of my siblings and parents go there, and we go out to eat after church every Sunday,” Lowery.
Lowery said her family is a close-knit one.
“We’re a very loving and very caring family,” she said. “We all still live very close to each other. Our parents gave us the love of teaching, because two out of the four children are teachers.”
What Lowery loves most about teaching is guiding her students and watching them succeed.
“It’s that moment when they’ve been practicing and then that lightbulb comes on in their head and the look of how happy they are,” she said. “It’s just like a plant. You’ve put a seed there, and you get to watch it grow.”
•Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7233 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
