{{Short description|American author and educator}}{{Infobox person | name = Stacey Bess | image = Stacey Bess.jpg | image_size = 200px | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1963|10|16|df=y}} | birth_place = Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | education = University of Utah (BA) | occupation = {{hlist|Author|educator}} | years_active = | spouse = | children = | signature = }} '''Stacey Bess''' (born October 16, 1963 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American author and educator. She wrote the memoir ''Nobody Don't Love Nobody,'' which was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie in 2011 called ''Beyond the Blackboard''.
== Early life == Bess was born on October 16, 1963 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her mother, Susan, was a secretary for a juvenile detention center in Salt Lake City.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Plummer |first=William |date=November 7, 1994 |title=Shelter in the Heart |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20104310,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204032158/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20104310,00.html |archive-date=2009-02-04 |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=People vol. 42, no. 19 |via=web.archive.org}}</ref> Her step-father, Roger Coon, was a fundraiser.<ref name=":4" />
Bess attended the University of Utah, graduating with a B.A. in elementary education in 1987.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2017-02-08 |title=About Stacey Bess |url=http://www.staceybess.com/about-stacey/ |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=Stacey Bess |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4" />
== Career == Bess' first teaching job, the only assignment she could find, was teaching math and reading at a school for children in a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City, Utah.<ref name=":2" /> She was told she would teach grades K–6, but she instead had to teach grades K–12.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Bess |first=Stacey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XMkCAAAACAAJ |title=Nobody Don't Love Nobody: Lessons on Love from the School with No Name |date=1994 |publisher=Gold Leaf Press |isbn=978-1-882723-10-2 |language=en}}</ref> The school was known as "The School With No Name"<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Groutage |first=Hilary |date=1995-01-22 |title='School With No Name' Looks a Lot Like Heaven to Its Homeless Pupils : Salt Lake City: Stacey Bess started teaching in a metal hut under a freeway viaduct. Because of her own troubled history, she relates to her pupils. 'I've had a really rough life,' she says. 'The gray in my hair is warranted.' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-22-mn-22874-story.html |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
She wrote the memoir ''Nobody Don’t Love Nobody: Lessons on Love From the School With No Name'' in 1994'','' about her experiences teaching homeless children at the homeless shelter.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Fisher |first=Rich |date=2015-01-28 |title=A Conversation with Stacey Bess, a Noted Teacher and Education Advocate Soon Appearing in Tulsa |url=https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/studiotulsa/2015-01-28/a-conversation-with-stacey-bess-a-noted-teacher-and-education-advocate-soon-appearing-in-tulsa |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=Public Radio Tulsa |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> In 2011, the book was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie called ''Beyond the Blackboard''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Howell |first=Blair |date=2024-01-02 |title=TV movie 'Beyond the Blackboard' profiles teacher's struggles |url=https://www.deseret.com/2011/4/22/20371587/tv-movie-beyond-the-blackboard-profiles-teacher-s-struggles/ |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=Deseret News |language=en}}</ref> After her book was published, she continued to teach at the homeless shelter part time.<ref name=":5" />
Bess now works as a public speaker, advocating for the educational rights of impoverished children.<ref name=":2" /> She also wrote ''Planting More Than Pansies: A Fable about Love'' in 2003.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bess |first=Stacey |url=https://archive.org/details/plantingmorethan00bess |title=Planting more than pansies : a fable about love |last2=Ricks |first2=Melissa |date=2003 |publisher=Salt Lake City, Utah : Shadow Mountain |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-57008-893-3}}</ref>
==Awards and honors== Her service has been recognized with a number of awards, including the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by Someone 35 Years or Younger in 1995.<ref>{{Citation |title=National |work=Past winners |url=http://www.jeffersonawards.org/pastwinners/national |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124043935/https://www.jeffersonawards.org/pastwinners/national |archive-date=November 24, 2010 |url-status=dead |publisher=Jefferson awards}}.</ref> She received the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator's Award in 1995 and the Rescuer of Humanity from Project Love in 1996.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007 |title=Looking for Interesting Reading ? Try an Educator’s Award book |url=http://www.deltakappagamma.org/MI/Educator'sAward%20Books.pdf |access-date=March 27, 2025 |website=Delta Kappa Gamma}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jarvik |first=Elaine |date=1997-04-30 |title=No name . . . but maybe a movie |url=https://www.deseret.com/1997/4/30/19309405/no-name-but-maybe-a-movie/ |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=Deseret News |language=en}}</ref>
==Personal life== Bess married Greg Bess, a commercial real estate appraiser in 1980 when she was sixteen and he was seventeen.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> The couple then went on to finish high school.<ref name=":5" /> They have six children.<ref name=":2" /> She has had thyroid cancer twice, surviving her first round when she was thirty.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://staceybess.com/ StacyBess.com]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bess, Stacey}} Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American women writers Category:University of Utah alumni Category:20th-century American educators Category:21st-century American writers Category:Writers from Salt Lake City Category:Educators from Utah Category:20th-century American women educators