Library will honor school librarian

The Morgan City Library will dedicate the children’s reading room in memory of Dolores Charles Henderson at 2 p.m. Friday.

Henderson retired in 1985 from the St. Mary Parish school system as a librarian, according to a story in The Daily Review about her death in 2015.

She last served as a librarian at Hattie Watts Elementary in Patterson.

Henderson worked in schools for 33 years.

Known as a storyteller and educator in the community, she facilitated enrichment groups for children at her home in a library built by husband Caleb Henderson.

She and her husband helped students go to four-year universities and other institutions of high learning. Caleb Henderson died in 1997.

Henderson assisted with the implementation of a tutoring program at Brownell Homes.

There she also started a children’s enrichment program that exposed children to storytelling and cultural events.

Henderson had a reputation for bringing artists to Morgan City for read-ins at Shannon Elementary.

She met many of the artists while attending graduate school at the University of Mississippi.

Henderson’s daughter, Wanda Henderson, said in an earlier report integration was important to her mother because as an avid reader she was unable to go to the public library.

In addition to receiving a master’s degree from the University of Mississippi, Henderson was an alumna of Southern University and Morgan City Colored High School.

Henderson left Morgan City in 2011 to live with her daughter. She died in Baton Rouge on March 14, 2015.