When she established a scholarship for African-American seminary students, funded primarily by proceeds from a yearly showing of hats she made, leadership at the Iliff School of Theology said: “Hats off to you, Verna Jackson.”
The Colorado Civil Rights Division offered a symbolic tip of thechapeauin 1998 by presenting Jackson with the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award. The Denver section of the National Council of Negro Women did the same when it gave her the coveted Mary McLeod Bethune Award.
But it was hats on for Verna Jackson when mourners assembled at Scott United Methodist Church on Saturday to bid tearful farewell to the retired educator and active philanthropist who died Oct. 16, her 91st birthday.
Jackson’s daughters, Lynda Jackson Browne and LaVerne Jackson Beck, had asked those who owned one of their mother’s creations to wear it to the service held in the church where Jackson’s late husband, the Rev. John H. Jackson Jr., had been pastor for 17 years.
Over half of the 100 or so women present — and one or two men — complied with the request.
A native of Forsyth, Ga., Verna Worthy Jackson held a Ph.D. in education and taught in Georgia and Kansas before moving to Denver 50 years ago. She was a teacher, coordinator of instruction and elementary school principal in the Denver Public Schools, and she was the author of four books.
After retiring, Jackson studied millinery, discovering a talent for creating hats that ranged from simple to spectacular. She enlisted dozens of friends to model the 50 or so that she made every year for her fundraiser.
One year, a Nordstrom employee was in the audience and was so taken by the designs that she brought them to the attention of store executives. Jackson eventually decided she couldn’t take on a responsibility that large but told friends she was thrilled and flattered to think her hats could have gained national retail exposure.
In addition to her work on behalf of Iliff, Jackson was a past member of the Samaritan Counseling Center board and an active supporter of Top Ladies of Distinction, the Georgia Civic and Social Club of Colorado, the Volunteers of America Guild, the American Association of University Women, Delta Kappa Gamma sorority and the Denver chapter of the Ministers’ Wives and Widows Council.
She also was a voter registration volunteer and election judge. Wat to make change Verna!
