Joanna Mary Berry Shields

        Joanna Berry, the eldest of eleven children of Charles and Carrie 
Lucas Berry, was born in Catharpin, Virginia.  She attended private school in
Prince William County and graduated with highest honors from the Manassas 
Industrial School in Manassas, Virginia.  She entered the Howard University 
preparatory department in 1901, subsequently receiving her high school 
education.  In 1910, she received the Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude, 
having majored in social science and mathematics.
        After graduation, Joanna Berry taught at Manassas Institute in 
Manassas, Virginia, and in 1911 she accepted a teaching position at the 
Slater Normal School, now known as the Winston Salem State University in 
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  In 1913, while in New York City to begin a 
period of extended travel, she met and married Mr. Samuel J. Shields.  They 
were the parents of six children.
        In 1920, when Mrs. Shields was teaching at Central School in 
Darlington, South Carolina, she was instrumental in securing help from the 
Rosenwald Fund to increase the length of the school year for Black children 
from three to six months.
        In 1922, Mrs. Shields and family moved to Winston-Salem, where she 
continued to raised her family and became active in civic and religious 
endeavors.  She gave her services for seven years as secretary to the Wentz 
Memorial Church.  She also worked with the church nursery school.  Here she 
was a close associate of Soror Ruth Trigg who persuaded her to re-establish 
her active membership in the sorority.
        In December 1935, Mrs. Shields attended the 18th Boule in Richmond, 
Virginia as a delegate from Phi Omega Chapter in Winston-Salem and was 
presented a diamond pin in recognition of her role as a founder of the 
sorority.
        Mrs. Shields and her family moved back to New York City in 1937.  
She taught remedial English at the Christopher Columbus High School in the 
Bronx until her retirement in 1943.
        In spite of the demands of her large family and her teaching career, 
Mrs. Shields found time to be very active in both church and community 
volunteer work.  After retirement, she became increasingly active in civic 
affairs.  Always a devout woman, she served as a deaconess at the Grace 
Congregational Church in New York.  Her concern for children led to an 
interest in the establishment of day care facilities for working mothers.  
She was a member of the board of directors of Colonial Park Day Care Nursery.
She gave extensive service to Sydenham Hospital and to the Harlem YWCA.  
She served on the Mayor's Committee on Human Rights and helped with senior 
citizen activities, although she never considered herself one.
        This energetic and involved woman was a member of the Howard 
University Alumni Club of New York, the NAACP, the National Council of Negro 
Women, the American Women's Volunteer Service and the Negro History Club.  
As an early consumer advocate, she was active with the Consumers' Protective 
Committee.  She was also active in voter registration.  Her spare time 
activities included sewing and daily visitations to the sick.
        Mrs. Shields was a member of the Tau Omega Chapter from 1937 until 
her death.  She visited graduate and undergraduate chapters of the sorority 
throughout the United States.  She kept up a lively correspondence with Soror
Lavinia Norman, a distant relative with whom she was always very close.
        Joanna Berry Shields died on February 2, 1965 in New York City at the 
home of her daughter and son-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Samuel C. Brisbane.  Mrs. 
Shields had been a widow for a number of years.  She is buried in Staten 
Island, New York.  Mrs. Shields' dedication to her family, her sorority and 
her community will be long remembered by those privileged to know her.