History
G.L. Wiley was the Principal and Math Instructor at A, J, Moore Junior High School, from 1910 until 1945. He retired in 1946. General Lawrence Wiley was born in Vernona, Mississippi. He was the third child, born to Henry A. Wiley and Evelyn Marie (Monroe) Wiley. At an early age he met and married Georgia Ann Radcliff, of Tupelo, Mississippi. This Union produced three daughters, Addie Cleo, Marie Elizabeth, and Jessie Louise.
Moving from Jackson, Mississippi to Palestine, Texas, G.L. Wiley attended Prairie View Normal School, which later became Prairie View State University, where he received a Texas Teachers Certificate. Before he got his first job as a teacher, he ran on the railroad, as a porter and Pullman porter, which he did for five years.
His first teaching job was in the public schools at Gatesville, Texas, and from there to Palestine, Texas. He then accepted a teaching position at A.J. Moore High School, under the late A.J. Moore, the first principal of the school.
He began his teaching career at the age of 25, and this tenure lasted for 47 years, with about 40 percent of those years spent as a teacher and Principal of the Grammar school, which was under the same roof as the high school. He was the mathematics teacher, during his stay at A. J. Moore High School.
In 1958, there was a majority of Black families living in East Waco. There was a school located at 1030 Live Oak Street called East Waco Junior High School. At that time, it was an all-white school but was changed to an all-black school, because of the population shift. A new name was sought for the school. After much deliberation, the name chosen was G.L. Wiley Junior High School and was well received. It was a great honor for the school to have been named after a man that taught school for 47 years.