Mattie Rials, a beloved children’s librarian known to generations simply as “Miss Mattie” and regarded with sainthood in Southwest Mississippi for her gentle ways with children and ever-sunny demeanor, has died. She was 91.
Rials passed away Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2025, at Camellia Estates in McComb, where she had spent less than a week after being placed in hospice care.
Rials suffered a compound fracture, which occurred around New Year’s Day, her granddaughter Sarah Beth Mangrum said. Mangrum said Rials was being a trooper, but her back gave out, and she went to the hospital for treatment. After that, doctors recommended hospice in an effort to manage her pain.
While Rials was a local celebrity of sorts, there will be no big funeral service or visitation, Mangrum said, and a graveside service will be limited to family, although a public memorial will be held at a later date.
Rials was born May 28, 1933, in McComb to James E. Gardner and Gladys McElveen Gardner.
She was a member of First Baptist Church of McComb. She worked for the library for 45 years and continued to volunteer there until her death.
Rials’ work with children started with a Bible school class when she was 15. She opened her own kindergarten in the garage of her and her husband Roger’s house on Sixth Street in McComb in 1965. She charged $20 per month per child — $18.50 to attend school in the morning and $1.50 to cover the cost of taking kids to and from kindergarten in her Volkswagen bus.
After closing the kindergarten in 1974, Rials went to work for the library. Jane Bryan was her first boss at the library.
Rials had her own alter ego, a never-seen rodent named Scooter Mouse who lived in the walls of the library and — according to legend fabricated by Rials — came from a farm in Amite County and escaped the clutches of a cat by seeking refuge in the library, where he rode a motorcycle through endless rows of bookshelves after hours.
Rials’ took her story hour to all of the library branches in Pike, Amite and Walthall counties up until a few years ago. She’d sing songs about imaginary bus and train rides and anything that was fit for the occasion, strumming her Suzuki Omnichord — a cross between a synthesizer and autoharp — as she sang.
She also established Wednesday Friends, a weekly gathering for arts and crafts, with some of its regulars meeting with Rials once a week over the course of decades. Rials said she thought of the Wednesday Friends “like my family.” A few years ago professors Leah Plocharczyk from Florida Atlantic University and Matthew Conner from the University of California-Davis did the research and determined that the Wednesday Friends was the oldest running intellectually disabled adult programming in the nation.
Rials was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Roger B. Rials; an infant child;, two sisters, Wilma Lawrence and Norma “Lucy” Simmons; a brother, William “Jack” Gardner; two brothers-in-law, George “Skeeter” Simmons and Bill Lawrence; and a sister-in-law, Claire Gardner.
Survivors include her two sons and their spouses, Steve and Rebecca Rials of Mccomb and Tim and Becky Rials of Maryville, Tenn., three grandchildren, Sarah (James) Mangrum of Hattiesburg, Leah Rials of Hattiesburg and Hannah (Sebastian) Jensen of Chippenham, England; a great-grandchild, Sybil Frances Mangrum; a a special niece, Karen (Robbie) Robertson of Centreville; and numerous nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to First Christian Church, the Miss Mattie Foundation or a charity of your choice.
