Edna Ellen Yancey

Edna Ellen Yancey was born in Memphis, Tenn., on Nov. 11, 1946, the daughter of John Lewis and Frances Etowa Wiles Yancey of Marked Tree. She died on July 24, 2023, at Heartland Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Benton, after a lengthy illness. 

Edna received her BSE at Arkansas State University. After a few years of teaching English elsewhere, she found her true calling at Benton public schools, where she remained for the next 39 years, until her retirement in 2012. In the mid-80’s, she received her Master’s in Gifted Education at UALR and began teaching gifted and talented classes. Several years later, she received her Doctorate from Memphis State University, yet chose to remain at Benton Middle School to teach the students she loved.  

Edna was known for her original curriculum units for gifted and talented classes, as well as for co-authoring a book of gifted curriculum, The Preadolescent: A Handbook of Middle School Classroom Strategies (1997) with Dr. Mary Prentice of UALR. She was especially adept at teaching debate to her students. Dr. Yancey considered her students as the children she never had, and she taught with a firm, but loving hand. Friends and students remember her red sports cars, her Pomeranian dogs, and her deep, hearty laughter.

Edna attended the Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock and Arkansas Gifted and Talented Educators (AGATE).

She is survived by her sister, Lisa Jon Yancey, of Jonesboro; her friends, Judy Bynum of Dermott and Sue Shults of Benton; and a host of students and fellow teachers in Benton. She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Frances Yancey, of Marked Tree. Memorials may be made to the Benton Middle School Gifted Program.

Services for Dr. Yancey will 11 a.m., Saturday, July 29, in the chapel of Roller-Alcoa Funeral Home, Benton, Ark. There will be a visitation at 10:30 a.m., prior to the service. Burial will be in Marked Tree Cemetery.

Please visit www.rollerfuneralhomes.com/alcoa for Dr. Yancey’s online guest book and service schedule.