Luella Bender Tapo

Luella Mae Bender Johnson Tapo (Tougaloo College, 1959), a retired educator and teachers union advocate, was born on January 13, 1931, in Corpus Christi, Texas, the daughter of Rev. William Albert Bender (TC, 1910) and Julia Evangeline Henderson “Ma” Bender. A resident of Blacklick, Ohio, Mrs. Tapo transitioned Saturday, November 9, 2019, at her home after an extended illness.    She grew up on the Tougaloo College campus, where her father served as Chaplain of the Woodworth Chapel and Assistant to the President. Her mother worked at Tougaloo as a school store manager, then as a library clerk at the L. Zenobia Coleman Library. Mrs. Tapo attended the Daniel Hand School and Tougaloo High School at Tougaloo College. She attended both Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal School (Arkansas AM&N, now University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) and Tougaloo College, earning a degree in elementary education and a minor in music from Tougaloo in 1959. Throughout high school and college, she was a thespian, sang in the choir and participated in numerous beauty pageants. She was a member of the Gamma Psi chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.    Mrs. Tapo taught elementary school in New Iberia, Louisiana and Columbus, Ohio, retiring from the Columbus Public School System after 35 ½ years. In the last five years of employment with the Columbus Public Schools, she was a multicultural consultant with the Columbus Education Association, lecturing in classrooms in the school district about the cultures she has visited and studied.  She served as a member of the Multicultural Booklist Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English, researching and editing materials for the 1994 Kaleidoscope, A Multicultural Booklist for Grades K-8.  An avid traveler, she participated in extensive study tours through an Ohio State University program to Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands. In addition to her teaching and multicultural work, she conducted an elementary reading program on WBNS-TV 10, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, Ohio, and was featured on other local television and radio programs for her multicultural work. Luella said her greatest honor was being invited to lecture in the classrooms of her former students who became teachers.   In retirement, she continued her efforts as a multicultural consultant to schools, nursing homes, and senior citizen centers throughout central Ohio. In addition, she has won multiple awards at the Ohio State Fair for her crocheting, baking, and homemade jellies. She served on the board of the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio, Inc., and as an officer of the Inter-Tribal Cultural Society.   Her marriages to Vannette Johnson and Albert Tapo ended in divorce. She is survived by her brother, Jonas Elbert Bender of Fairborn, Ohio; children, Juliette Johnson Faulding (TC 1974) of Centerville, Virginia; Lynnette Johnson Williams (TC 1976) and husband Todd of Upper Marlboro, Maryland; and Reginald William Tapo of Blacklick, Ohio; her grandchildren, Naomi Nicole Shelton (TC 2002) of Washington, D.C. and David Edward Faulding of Centreville, Virginia; and a cousin, Patricia Henderson Hammond and her husband Eric of Chicago, Illinois; nephew, Michael J. Bender and wife Tammy of Dallas, Texas; niece Jerri E. Harrison and husband Peyton of Spring Valley, California; and great-nephews Ryan Bender of Dallas, Texas and  Brandon and Jordan Harrison of Spring Valley, Calif. Mrs. Tapo was preceded in death by her parents, William A. and Julia Henderson Bender. In lieu of flowers, her children request donations to the Tougaloo College Civil Rights Endowed Chair in memory of Luella Bender Tapo. Please follow the link at the bottom of the page to make those memorial contributions. A memorial service, officiated by Chaplain Larry Johnson (retired), is scheduled for 1:00 p.m., Saturday, November 16, 2019, at Woodworth Chapel, Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Mississippi; interment Tougaloo Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Mississippi.