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Pike Liberal Arts School was founded in 1970.

Teachers, principals and students have come and gone.

Trecy Gray came 44 years ago and has stayed and has become the face of PLAS.

Gray, PLAS administrative assistant, laughs at the thought of that.

“I’m just the first face people see when they come through the door,” she said.

But it wasn’t always that way. When Gray was hired at PLAS in 1980, she was an aide for Mrs.  Ledbetter’s first- grade class. 

“I loved the children and I just loved being a part of the school,” Gray and added, laughing. “I looked forward to the field trips as much as the children.”

During the next few years, Gray had other involvement opportunities, as a substitute teacher, SGA sponsor, physical education aide, cheerleader coach. Then, in 1984, Trecy Gray had the opportunity to be the PLAS bookkeeper.

“I wasn’t sure about that opportunity because I enjoyed the students and I knew I would miss them,” Gray said.

However, as the administrative assistant, she greets and assists visitors and has opportunities to interact with students, including office assistants, students, who come for a variety of reasons, and parents, who entrust their children to the school.

Little did Gray think and, certainly, she didn’t know that, on her perch in the PLAS office, she would become the face of the school and a mother hen to students of all ages and a confidant to many during their growing up years.

Mrs. Gray soon became “Miss Trecy” and a special person in the lives of hundreds of students at PLAS.

“And they were, and are, all special to me,” she said. “The Lord placed me here at Pike Liberal Arts and I am so thankful.”

At home, Gray continues to “tend to things” — her flowers and her vegetable garden. She cans and freezes the garden harvest for the winter months. She enjoys reading and painting, especially, scenes from her memory and of the fading countryside.

She is blessed with a wonderful family, her husband, Billy; their son, William Keith Gray, and his wife, Tanya, and their daughter, Cynthia Lee Gray, and grandchildren, Caleb Gray and his wife, Sydney Gray, San Antonio, Texas and Anna May, Troy.