Sister Tarpley went to elementary, middle, and high school in Dallas, Texas, during a time where schools were still segregated. She went to one of the three African American high schools in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD), Booker T. Washington High School (now known as Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts) and graduated in 1959. After high school, she went on to attend the Historically Black College & University (HBCU) Prairie View A&M, located in Prairie View, Texas, and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Business Education and a Minor Degree in Economics. She would later go back to school at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, and graduated with her Master’s Certificate in Dispute Resolution (Mediation, Negotiation, and Arbitration). Out of all of her siblings, she had the honor of being the first one to attend and graduate from college.
After graduating, Sister Tarpley married Mr. Lorenzo Tarpley, and they had two children—a son, Jarell Edwin, and a daughter, Sheila Donnise, who also had four children in their relationships. She was hired to work for Collins Radio Company (changed to Rockwell International) as a production secretary. While working there, the company was contracted by the United States’ government and tasked to produce the communication system for the first ever space ship launched by the United States Space Program. She received the highest possible security clearance from the federal government while she helped produce the communication system, making the entire experience one of the biggest highlights of her life.
In 1965, she and her husband moved to Carrollton, Texas, where they purchased their first house. At the time of moving, Carrollton, Texas, was a small suburban town of only around 9,000 residents. Carrollton was geographically segregated at the time of their moving, making the Tarpley’s the first African American family to move into the “white section” of town. To this day, even with Carrollton’s population rising to over 150,000 people, the town only has a black population of about six percent.
Sister Tarpley integrated R. L. Turner High School (RLT), the only high school in Carrollton‑Farmers Branch I.S.D. (CFBISD) at the time. She was voted as one of the top ten teachers in the school every year except her first year by each senior class until she transferred high schools. In 1978, she was able to also desegregate the new high school, Newman Smith, which was a second high school that was built in the CFBISD district, where she remained until her teaching retirement in 1996. In 1993, she even had the honor of being selected by KDFW‑TV to be their first “Class Act” teacher in the Dallas‑Fort Worth Metroplex.
In 1991, Sister Tarpley became the first African American woman elected to the Carrollton City Council. During the 1993 election, she ran unopposed in the race for the council seat, and received the second highest number of votes in the history of Carrollton municipal elections, an achievement that still stands today. In 1995, she became the first African American to serve as Mayor Pro Tem for the City of Carrollton. She also served as Executive Board of the City of Carrollton Bi‑Centennial Commission, Executive Board Member of Carrollton’s Peewee Football Association, Executive Board Member of Carrollton’s Peewee Cheerleader Association, Peewee Team Mother for many of Carrollton’s football and cheerleader teams, Executive Board Member of the Parents, Teachers & Students, and many other leaders in different communities all over Carrollton.
She was proud of her faith and her membership in the Bethel Bible Fellowship Church in Carrollton, Texas, led by Dr. Terrence Woodson, the Pastor of the church, and his First Lady, Sister Ve Woodson. She was the personal secretary for the church’s Senior Pastor and was a proud Sunday School teacher and Sunday School Superintendent.
In 2001, Sister Tarpley became the first Religious Editor for the North Dallas Gazette weekly newspaper in Plano, Texas, the “North Dallas’ Weekly Paper of Choice,” where she helped the newspaper’s cause in raising and nurturing the rising voices of the African American community in North Texas. In this position, she was able to help prove how, especially today, representation matters more than ever.
Thanks to the steps her parents took to help her, she took great pride in her heritage, and was always ready to strive to do the best in everything she did, accept any and everyone just as they were, and to love and trust God over everyone and everything else. She lived by her parents’ teachings all the way to her death on May 25, 2024, and made sure her children, her family, her church, the schools she worked at, and her community did the same as well.
Sister Tarpley’s writing continues to inspire the community. Though she has passed from this world, the North Dallas Gazette continues to share her work, running columns from the vast archive in its print edition every week. They can also be found by searching for Sister Tarpley on the newspaper’s website (www.northdallasgazette.com).
