Celebration of life for Ms. Rovina Mae Wilds will be 12:00 p.m. Friday, May 31, 2024, in the funeral home chapel. Interment will follow at Faith Memorial Gardens, Rogers Rd., Darlington, SC 29532.

Obituary

Rovina Mae Wilds was born on May 11, 1945 in Darlington, South Carolina. She passed into eternal rest on March 28, 2024. The daughter of Dock Wilds and Rovina Murray Wilds. She was the granddaughter of Homer Wilds, an enslaved Civil War Veteran. She was preceded in death by two siblings Beulah Wilds-Jones and Louis Hickman. As a child, Rovina attended Friendship Baptist Church and the Macedonia Baptist Church in Darlington. The Macedonia Baptist Church was founded in 1866 by a family descended Reverend, Dr. Isaac P. Brockenton. Today the Macedonia Baptist Church is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Rovina attended Darlington, South Carolina public schools. She graduated from Mayo High School in 1963, where she achieved academic excellence and graduated at the top of her class. Upon graduating from Mayo High School, she relocated to Brooklyn, New York to attend Brooklyn College. She received her Bachelors and Master’s degrees from Brooklyn College. She also attended one year of law school, but decided that law was not going to be her career choice. She later became a New York City Board of Education Teacher and taught for nearly forty years in elementary and middle schools before retiring. She also taught summers at the elite New York City, Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Upon retiring, she started a tutorial service for students who were deficient in math, reading and meeting state standards. A week prior to Rovina’s hospitalization, she was actively engaged in providing tutoring services to her students. In 2004, Rovina received the Outstanding Educator and Mentor Award from the Jackie Robinson Center for Physical Culture.

Principals and administrators have noted from classroom observations that Rovina, had the ability to challenge her students by asking, high level and thought-provoking questions to get them to respond in greater depth to her inquiries. Barbara Gibbons, Assistant Principal at Public School 316 asserted that her students were fortunate to have her as a teacher. She was a teacher who brought care, knowledge, empathy, passion and cultural understanding to the classroom.

Rovina was known for her scholarly ability to debate political and cultural issues. She was well read and had a profound appreciation for African, African-American history, literature and political thought as well as for European literature and political ideology. She indeed was a renaissance person.

Her political astuteness led her to run for a City Council seat from Brooklyn, New York neighborhood where she resided. She organized a tenant association to address issues concerning the lack of services they were receiving. Rovina was a member of the Junior NAACP growing up in Darlington and later became a member in New York. She was proud card-carrying member of the Black Panther Party. She also was a member of Student Nonviolent Committee (SNCC) headed by the late Stokely Carmichael. Rovina was actively involved with the student uprising at Brooklyn College in the 1960’s and 70’s to bring inclusion, student support, scholarships to underserved Black students. In addition, she worked diligently on getting African Americans registered to vote and was an active participant in the election campaigns for President Barak Obama.

Rovina loved live theater and all genres of music. Rovina spent her down time playing card games and had a love for chess, attending weekly bingo nights as well having a penchant for visiting casinos. She leaves to mourn two special cousins, Franklin Wilds of Washington, DC, and Peter Wilds-Bethea who resides in New York. Also, the family tree includes numerous cousins and extended family. The words of Rovina: “Freedom comes with a cost and you must be willing to give up your life for it.”

Please keep the Wilds family in your thoughts and prayers.