ROSINTON, Ala. — For nine years, she’s been making reading the love of youngsters’ lives at Rosinton elementary. With the sound of the final bell last Friday, she left teaching.

Donna Buffington Garvin, a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Rosinton Elementary says she will do some substitute teaching and a “lot of gardening” at the Styx River home she shares with her husband, Terry.

“I’m going to miss the kids,” Garvin said “”the entire thing - I love to watch them grow and progress.”

But even though she will miss the youngsters terribly, she also says it was time to retire.

“My husband has retired,” Garvin said, “and we both have had health issues. It was time to pass the baton.”

Youngsters in Garvin’s classes have known for a while that their teacher was leaving, and Garvin hopes that a younger teacher who has been helping with her classes will take over. That’s up to the school board who has not voted on the matter yet.

“I am gong to miss all of Donna’s questions and her support,” said Rosinton Elementary’s principal Theresa  Harden.

Garvin did not chooses a right-from-college route to teaching. “I loved playing basketball in high school,” said Garvin, who grew up in Tennessee, adding that she hoped to become a women’s basketball coach.

However, when she got to college, she was put into “business” classes.

“I quit after a year,” said Garvin. “I moved to Atlanta.”

After that followed a variety of jobs, including becoming a flight attendant for United Air Lines.

I loved interacting with the people,” Garvin said. She moved to California and loved it.

“I left my heart there,” admits Garvin.

She also began to feel “restless.”

“I knew I could do more with my life,” said Garvin. She began attending what was then called “junior college” (now community college) in California.

“That got me back into education,” said Garvin.

However, Garvin’s mother was killed in an automobile accident, so she moved back to Tennessee to help care for her father. She continued to take classes at the University of Tennessee.

It was a visit to friends in Fairhope that brought her to Alabama.

“My father was back on his feet and I learned to hate winter in California,” said Garvin. “I have been here ever since.”

Again, working a variety of jobs, Garvin earned a degree in sociology in 1980 from the University of Alabama.

She was happy working in Mobile, when her boss showed her a paper written by a college-bound student.

“It had such horrible English,” said Garvin. “I earned my master’s degree and never looked back.”

Garvin earned her masters in elementary education in 1993 from the University of South Alabama.

Finding a permanent job in education was not easy.

“I subbed for two years,” said Garvin.

A permanent position came to Garvin in 1995 at Summerdale School. She transferred to Rosinton in 2000.

“Mrs. Donna Garvin is a teacher who instills both academic skills (Math/Reading) and character in the children she teaches,” said Harden in a press release. The release went on to say that “The Rosinton teachers, parents and students will truly miss her.”

While Garvin loves teaching, it’s been hard on her. She says she’s in bed by 8:30 p.m., probably the same time or earlier than her students.

Garvin is taking years of memories with her. She has one favorite.

“There was one little boy in the third grade. He just hated to read,” recalled Garvin, who said she started working with the youngster, finding things to read on topics that interested him.

“By the fifth grade, he was a top reader,” said Garvin.