To gain the best perspective of LaMills' elementary years requires gaining an understanding of the person most physically present person through those early years-Jackie, his mom. Jackie was born on February 23, 1950 to Joseph Francis Priester and Mary Priester (Chavis) in Columbia, SC. She was the oldest of ten children with four sisters and five brothers and both of her parents were from humble means with neither being educated beyond high school. With nine younger siblings and her dad often being away driving trucks, Jackie would find herself carrying a considerable amount of the parental and supervisory role for her siblings which often diverted her priorities from those of a typical preteen.
Compounding the family dynamics were the norms of being a young Black girl in South Carolina during the times of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement. Despite the many limiting factors surrounding her and for her to live through, Jackie never leveraged excuses regarded her circumstances, status, or options. She firmly believed that her accomplishments or lack thereof were directly connected with her choice to aspire to reach those heights or avoid those bottoms. In a not so affectionate manner, she could be counted on to boost others to leverage this same approach and was quick to separate herself from those more occupied with excuses than action. In the case of her children, they simply had to “poop” because “getting off the toilet” wasn’t an option.
In her early years, Jackie was known as being aggressive, quick to speak her mind, undaunted by the claims or challenges of others, intimidating amongst the girls, and quick to engage in physical conflict. Along with that was being very physically attractive, protective of her family, and very reliable helper for her mother. She also loved to sing and dance and spend time with her sisters. She was very close to Josephine and Cynthia. Aside from the nine siblings, shortly after turning 14, Jackie would be raped and have her first child Sonji Rochelle Priester on January 1, 1965. Less than four months later, she would have to bury her baby girl after Sonji died from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). All of this clearly had an impact on Jackie and after essentially missing her entire eighth grade going through pregnancy, having a child as a fourteen year old, and then losing that child, Jackie would reenroll in school and continue forward with her education.
About two years later at the age of 17, Jackie would become pregnant again. She and her boyfriend Salters “Coop” Hook would have Tisha Terre Priester on September 10, 1967 and Jackie would not return to school again. A year later, September 2, 1968, Salters Twayne “Nik” Priester would be born to Jackie and Coop. Despite the many trials faced in her life leading up to the birth of her two young children, Jackie proactively moved forward to identify the best means to care for them with the resources available. A couple of years later she would meet and later marry Lamills Garrett before having Alex when she was 22 years old.
Despite disappointments from the fathers of her children and not having a mate nor high school education to lessen her burden, Jackie continued to move forward and was committed to doing and providing the best for the children which eventually led her to the Bishop. Aside from being a single mother of three young children, Jackie was also living with epilepsy which amounted to an extra logistic and worry for her and all the children whenever an epileptic seizure occurred. Those occurrences were unpredictable and extremely uncomfortable.
Though Jackie never graduated high school and she had many scores of excuses why she didn’t, she never chose to use the excuses. She didn’t graduate and that was it. However, she didn’t consider such an option to be acceptable for her children and she consistently reinforced that expectation with her children on a regular basis. Even as her academic knowledge was surpassed by her children in elementary and middle school she didn’t bother herself with the details of the class content and simply held firm to the need to attain the right result- graduate high school. She understood that education was a means to better opportunities and wanted her children to have a better life and more opportunities than she did. Today LaMills is fairly known for being results-oriented, a strong and direct communicator, stressing the importance of education, and not tolerable of excuses. Jackie clearly had an influence on him carrying those characteristics and qualities.
Compounding the family dynamics were the norms of being a young Black girl in South Carolina during the times of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement. Despite the many limiting factors surrounding her and for her to live through, Jackie never leveraged excuses regarded her circumstances, status, or options. She firmly believed that her accomplishments or lack thereof were directly connected with her choice to aspire to reach those heights or avoid those bottoms. In a not so affectionate manner, she could be counted on to boost others to leverage this same approach and was quick to separate herself from those more occupied with excuses than action. In the case of her children, they simply had to “poop” because “getting off the toilet” wasn’t an option.
In her early years, Jackie was known as being aggressive, quick to speak her mind, undaunted by the claims or challenges of others, intimidating amongst the girls, and quick to engage in physical conflict. Along with that was being very physically attractive, protective of her family, and very reliable helper for her mother. She also loved to sing and dance and spend time with her sisters. She was very close to Josephine and Cynthia. Aside from the nine siblings, shortly after turning 14, Jackie would be raped and have her first child Sonji Rochelle Priester on January 1, 1965. Less than four months later, she would have to bury her baby girl after Sonji died from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). All of this clearly had an impact on Jackie and after essentially missing her entire eighth grade going through pregnancy, having a child as a fourteen year old, and then losing that child, Jackie would reenroll in school and continue forward with her education.
About two years later at the age of 17, Jackie would become pregnant again. She and her boyfriend Salters “Coop” Hook would have Tisha Terre Priester on September 10, 1967 and Jackie would not return to school again. A year later, September 2, 1968, Salters Twayne “Nik” Priester would be born to Jackie and Coop. Despite the many trials faced in her life leading up to the birth of her two young children, Jackie proactively moved forward to identify the best means to care for them with the resources available. A couple of years later she would meet and later marry Lamills Garrett before having Alex when she was 22 years old.
Despite disappointments from the fathers of her children and not having a mate nor high school education to lessen her burden, Jackie continued to move forward and was committed to doing and providing the best for the children which eventually led her to the Bishop. Aside from being a single mother of three young children, Jackie was also living with epilepsy which amounted to an extra logistic and worry for her and all the children whenever an epileptic seizure occurred. Those occurrences were unpredictable and extremely uncomfortable.
Though Jackie never graduated high school and she had many scores of excuses why she didn’t, she never chose to use the excuses. She didn’t graduate and that was it. However, she didn’t consider such an option to be acceptable for her children and she consistently reinforced that expectation with her children on a regular basis. Even as her academic knowledge was surpassed by her children in elementary and middle school she didn’t bother herself with the details of the class content and simply held firm to the need to attain the right result- graduate high school. She understood that education was a means to better opportunities and wanted her children to have a better life and more opportunities than she did. Today LaMills is fairly known for being results-oriented, a strong and direct communicator, stressing the importance of education, and not tolerable of excuses. Jackie clearly had an influence on him carrying those characteristics and qualities.