Moving here from the small town of Goldwaithe, a Texas city with less than 1,300 people, Beverly had her eyes set on the medical field. Her father owned a clinic, and all the women in her family had taken on the nursing role.
Her whole heart wanted to find a home at the clinic, although she had another passion she wished to pursue.
While going to UT, she could see how her professor spoke about children, the light in her professor’s eyes was one she knew all too well. While babysitting, teaching swim lessons and caring for children at the church, her passion for childcare was sparked.
Her soul knew what it wanted to pursue; however, many told her otherwise. How would she make money? Her income wasn’t guaranteed with childcare. Why would she choose this when she could work at her father’s hospital?
Regardless, she followed what her heart was pulling her towards.
Today, her home is filled with memories at every turn after 31 years of running a successful childcare business. The wall with everybody’s heights, LEGO sculptures built by kids over the years, many of them graduated now, and of course, their cat Dexter.
“I won’t be the one that will get them into Harvard, I’m not gonna be the one that helps them get a 4.0, but I may be the one that gives them joy in my care, and make sure they laugh a lot,” she said
The Harkeys don’t just have a house, but a true home.
Editor’s note: Photojournalism students wrote 300-word stories that emulated the feature profiles written by Brady Dennis for the St. Petersburg Times in the mid-2000s. 2022-2024 Shield co-editor in chief Alice Scott prepared a master class on Dennis’ stories for the newspaper staff, and adviser Dave Winter was so impressed with the lesson that he changed his feature profile assignment based on what Scott taught the staff about Dennis’ stories. As a result, we have a growing collection of wonderful short profiles—including this loving and lovely profile of Beverly Harkey and her career in childcare—that are well-crafted, powerful and straight from the heart.
![This is Paul Pew's high school graduation photo. The 2023-2024 school year marked his 34th year of teaching. He began his career in Washington, then came to McCallum where he has taught for the past 17. At heart though, he’s really a musician. One that grew up in many different places, including Chicago and California, who took interest in teaching from a young age. His high school choir experience, along with some international singing in college, persuaded him that teaching was his path. He knew he wanted to be able to help create works of art in the fine arts department as well, so he joined McCallum. He’s worked on many of the musicals over the years, even before Joshua Denning, the former theatre director of the fine arts program arrived. Before him was a different director: Tatum.
“I was the music director for all the musicals,” Pew said. “[Mr. Tatum and I] worked very hard, and I just got to the point where I was satisfied with it.” Although he may not be as prominent of a member in the musical theatre community at McCallum anymore, he still plays piano. “I still do a lot of music down at the Music end of the building,” Pew said. Photo courtesy of Paul Pew.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Paul-Pew-1974-888x1200.jpg)
