Author Robert Fulghum hit the nail on the head, said Burma Wright, when he called his best-selling book “All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”

“It’s true. I believe it. I’ve seen it,” said Wright, now retired after a trailblazing career as director of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Kindergarten, now the oldest active preschool program in LaGrange.

Founded during the 1959-60 school term, St. Mark’s Kindergarten will observe its 50th anniversary Saturday with festivities at 7:30 p.m. at the church on North Greenwood Street. Former students, teachers, parents and others who “learned all they needed to know” at St. Mark’s are being invited back for a celebration and silent auction.

Except for the former Callaway Education Association and a few in-home “nursery schools,” there really were no kindergartens in LaGrange when St. Mark’s began its program, recalled Harriette Edge, whose children were in the first classes.

“There was a dearth of places for kindergarten-age children,” she said. “It was a big success from the beginning. Mothers were clamoring to get their children into St. Mark’s.”

No formal history of the kindergarten exists, but then-rector Bill Jones, who went on to become a bishop in the Missouri diocese, and early directors and teachers, Frankie Lee Cole Blankenship, Winnie Johnson Burdette and Ann Partin Braswell Traylor, were among those most involved with its start-up.

Edge said “it began as a service ministry” in the days before women began flocking to the work force, creating a need for child care.

That’s still the mission, said board chairman Markette Baker, Troup County solicitor general, who attended St. Mark’s as a child and now has her own children enrolled.

“St. Mark’s is such a happy place. Children don’t even realize they are learning, they just soak it up,” she said.

Baker’s family is among many with multiple generations connected to the school.

“I can’t go anywhere in town without seeing someone who came through St. Mark’s,” said Wright, who became director in 1970 and served for 30 years.

Alumni include local doctors, lawyers, business leaders, a wide variety of educators and at least one bank president.

“I have very fond, very vivid memories of St. Mark’s,” said Sallie Alford Hadden, LaGrange president of SunTrust bank, who attended as a 5-year-old in 1962-63.

Those memories include a year-end train ride “all the way” to West Point and regular trips to chapel services in the St. Mark’s sanctuary.

“I remember it as almost a magical experience, with the morning sun streaming through those beautiful stained-glass windows,” Hadden said.

Christian education remains a part of the curriculum as the program begins its second half century.

Much that St. Mark’s is known for, including its reputation for preparing children for success in school, stems from Wright’s leadership and enduring influence, kindergarten officials and former colleagues say.

“Without a doubt, the reason St. Mark’s has lasted for 50 years can be summed up in two words: Burma Wright,” said Cammie Solomon Long, a former faculty member. “Burma didn’t start St. Mark’s, but she built it. … She poured her heart and soul into it, and it surely paid off.”

Wright was a pioneer in local early childhood education, Baker said.

“Burma definitely was ahead of her time, always looking for what could be added, what would enrich or expand the program,” she said.

That included daily music and painting at easels - the messier and more creative, the better - and the area’s first movement classes.

Wright said her philosophy was to teach children to think and solve problems on their own. Curriculum was carefully planned and based on sound educational principles, but if it happened to be fun, well, all the better.

“I was not real high on dispensing facts,” Wright said. “I wanted them to discover, to figure out things for themselves, to understand how things worked.”

Another priority was to maintain a cheerful, welcoming atmosphere, where children felt valued, secure and loved.

“We had a lot of TLC. We talked a lot about self worth and cooperation, those were big things,” she said.

And Wright believes she had a knack for hiring outstanding teachers.

Her secret?

“I always had a space on the application to list their volunteer work. If they had never done much volunteer work, I didn’t hire them. I couldn’t pay enough, so I found people who were passionate about teaching and believed in community service. They weren’t just quality teachers, they were wonderful people,” she said.

The formula apparently worked. Demand for places at St. Mark’s was already high, but during Wright’s first decade as director, the program was swamped.

“One year, we had 180 children and another 180 on the waiting list. I was overwhelmed with demand,” she recalled.

Even today, with public pre-K and kindergarten going strong and with many churches, day cares and private schools offering programs, St. Mark’s stays full. Many working mothers adjust their schedules to keep their children in St. Mark’s, which now has an “afternoon special” program that lasts until 2 p.m. but does not offer full-day service.

“You wouldn’t believe the grandmothers in our car pool line,” said current director Gayle Oliver, who has preserved or brought back many of the traditions established by Wright, while also “bringing the program into the 21st century,” with Internet-accessible computers.

Another important thing hasn’t changed.

“People still teach here for the love of the child,” Oliver said.

Artist and faculty member Susan Crawford has brightened the well-used classrooms and halls with colorful murals and drawings, and the kindergarten has remained the happy place Baker remembers from her childhood.

“It is so nice to have children who want to go to school and look forward to it every day,” she said. “It makes you feel good that they love it so much. … The building is always full of happy voices.”

50-year celebration

St. Mark’s Episcopal Kindergarten will mark its 50th anniversary with a celebration and silent auction at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the church at 207 N. Greenwood St. A short program will take place at 8:15. Anyone with a connection to the kindergarten may attend. Tickets at $20 will be available at the door.