It’s Teacher Appreciation Month!
The truth is that every single day is the day for teacher appreciation. After all, every other job is made possible, in part, by a teacher. So, yes, we should always be thankful for our amazing Mississippi teachers.
Today, let’s begin by thanking one family that truly is filled with teachers: Jeff and Lisa Tally have literally spent a lifetime teaching and loving on the students of Mooreville, Mississippi.
Lisa (or Ms. Tally, to her students) was a math teacher extraordinaire. According to my kids and their friends, she came to class every day prepared and determined to bring out the best in each of her students. As my youngest son would lovingly (and reverently) say, “You don’t want to mess with Ms. Tally. She does not play when it comes to math.”
Her students, their testing scores, and their success in higher level college math classes back up that statement. Lisa Tally did her job with excellence. And in turn, she nurtured and generated excellence in her students – even the ones who truly thought they could not be successful in a math class.
Her husband, Jeff Tally, a stellar championship athlete himself, achieved the same results with every athlete he coached, be it through basketball, baseball, or track and field. For many of those young athletes, he was the positive father figure they had never seen. Calm, steady, rock-solid in his faith, with a spirit of determination and perseverance, Coach Tally rarely raised his voice. But he raised his standard every single game, and his athletes, including his own children, worked diligently to reach that standard of excellence.
But Lisa and Jeff Tally went far beyond simply teaching and coaching the students of Mooreville. They made them a part of their family. With three sons and a daughter of their own, it would have been much easier to worry about their four and no more.
Instead, they quietly gave so much time, energy, and money to help their students during situations and times that no one else ever saw – no one except their own children. And as a testament to their parents’ love of teaching and nurturing other people’s children, the Tally kids continue to carry that torch.
Their youngest child, daughter Rachel Tally Fischer, followed in her mom’s footsteps as she also teaches math. Her twin brothers, Russ and Lance Tally, are not educators, but they both chose careers that kept them close to home and serving the public. Plus, Russ’ wife, Leslie Tally, was Mississippi’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.
The oldest sibling, Jim Tally, has been a coach and teacher at Mooreville, like his parents. But he and his wife Michael Ann will both be working at East Union Attendance Center this coming school year.
That change in school systems led to a recent nostalgic Facebook post from their mother, Lisa Tally, including a photo with her husband and four children lined up alongside the Big M in the Mooreville High School gym – a place where this family has spent countless hours over the past years.
In fact, Lisa’s post remarked that her family clocked a combined 84 years of teaching at Mooreville schools, and with the inclusion of two of her daughters-in law, the number grew to 93 years of teaching. Almost a century of learning!
And who knows! That number may grow into the third generation of family educators if some of the nine Tally grandchildren become teachers one day as well.
Talk about a lifetime of continuing service!
So, from the heart of a grateful momma and a retired educator, I ask that you join me in celebrating Jeff and Lisa Tally and their family’ lifetime legacy of teaching and coaching the students and athletes of our great state of Mississippi.
