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Percy Harvey
It was a snowy, blustery day in Nashville five years ago when Percy Harvey walked a group of gifted children through the halls of the Capitol to meet the legislators who were threatening to cut funding for their education. Mr. Harvey sat the children at the front of a large meeting room and asked the lawmakers to look into the faces of those who would be affected by that vote.The budget for gifted education was left intact that day.That was classic Percy Harvey -- savvy lobbyist, advocate and sharp legal mind. Mr. Harvey, a school board attorney and lobbyist for the Memphis city school district, died late Monday after a yearlong battle with lung cancer. He was 55. Memphis school board vice president Sara Lewis was there that blustery day in Nashville. "Percy was in his element that day," she said. "That was a fun day. He was dogged." His persistence developed early. He was born Jan. 30, 1950, in a small home at Lauderdale and Trigg in South Memphis, the baby in a family of 12 children. His mother worked as a cafeteria worker in Memphis city schools, his father worked on the railroad. They made sure education empowered their children. At Booker T. Washington High, Mr. Harvey became involved in everything. He was a member of the debate team, trumpeter in the band, quarterback of the football team. The star scholar and athlete went on to Wesleyan University in Connecticut and then to law school at Harvard. His first marriage was to Peggy Prater, a former Memphis city school board member who died in 1997 of a blood disorder. They had a daughter together, Nicole Elizabeth Harvey, who is now 16. He married Toni Blount Harvey in 1999. She calls him "the love of my life." "He was the advocate for the underdog, that's why Bridges Inc. (the nonprofit youth leadership organization) was such a passion of his," Toni Harvey said. "He believed in overcoming the barriers of race and income. Keep the ladder down and pull someone up behind you, that's what Percy believed." Mr. Harvey kept working even while he was ill. Most recently, he helped convince state officials to award Memphis millions of dollars for 26 new pre-K classes. "He cared about equity and adequacy," Lewis said. Mr. Harvey also leaves his mother, Mary Frances Harvey of Memphis; a brother, Rev. Louis-Charles Harvey of Washington; and eight sisters, Nell Booker, Idella Davis, Angela Wynn and Carolyn Somerville, all of Memphis, Glenda Harvey of Detroit, Gladys Brock of Madison, Tenn., Marietta Collins of Atlanta and Wilma Harvey of Washington.Visitation is Friday noon to 7 p.m. at N.J. Ford and Sons Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Church of the Holy Communion, 4645 Walnut Grove, with burial in Memorial Park Cemetery at Poplar and Yates.