Wanda Lee Sipe

Wanda Lee Covington SipeE, age 88, of Little Rock passed away Saturday morning, February 15,2025. She, the youngest of two daughters, was born February 11th , 1937, to George Washington and Lela Gertrude Covington who in their later years resided in Southwest Little Rock.

Wanda loved music. She developed her vocal and instrumental talent at an early age with the encouragement of her parents. She and her sister, Delila, were original members of the Bald Knob’s Novettes, founded in 1949 by Mrs. Kim Novak. In 1954, she was awarded a music scholarship to ASU, but due to her father’s transfer out of area, she left ASU after one and a half years, completed her Music Education degree at Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky in 1958, and began her teaching career at Satellite Beach, Florida, she being the first Music teacher of Cape Canaveral’s children, many of whose parents were engineers or astronauts. 

Due to family concerns, she, following her family’s movements, taught one year at Brookhaven, Mississippi (music), that followed by three years at Joe T. Robinson, LR (teaching 2 nd grade).  Chasing her dream to study music abroad, she applied for and was selected by the Department of Defense (DOD) to teach primary students of military personnel overseas, her initial assignment being at Toul-Rosiere AFB, France, where she attended on scholarship night classes at Nancy Conservatory of Music, and won second prize in opera at the end of her second year. In 1965, she transferred to Ankara, Turkey, her primary assignment being to teach embassy and US military dependent’s children. This transfer allowed her to study voice under the tutelage of a Turkish opera star and culminated with a recital before most of the Turkish music critics of the day. In 1966, Wanda moved to Augsburg, Germany, where she continued her music studies at Conservatory of Music, Augsburg for another year. In 1967, Wanda accepted assignment to Okinawa during the Vietnam war, where she, due to the large number of military dependents, taught double sessions for three years. In 1970, she transferred to Goose Bay, Labrador, where she taught for two years, several of her students being adopted Inuit children. In 1972, she transferred to Guantanamo, Cuba as a primary teacher of dependent children. Before the school year’s end, the impending death of her father caused her return stateside. Wanda’s DOD career concluded with one-year stints in Antigua, West Indies, where she married Edman L. Sipe, and in Eleuthera, Bahamas, where Edman was serving as Executive Officer, U.S. Naval Facility, Eleuthera.

In mid-1975, Wanda resigned from her teaching position with DOD, she and Edman moved to Little Rock, the center of their nationwide music ministry for 9 years and where they recorded several albums. During the early-80s while Edman was pursuing his theological studies, she took several theological courses and monitored many more of those offered in Fuller’s School of World Mission. Afterward, she was instrumental in founding “The Good News Fellowship”, a contemporary church targeting young adults.

In 1990, after observing first-hand the state of SWLR’s schools, she became the co-founder of PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS, a not-for-profit private school dedicated to serving primarily the financially challenged families of SWLR, most of whose children were resource limited.  She, a reading specialist, had an immediate impact on student progress. When PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS began providing daycare services (Little Scholars Learning Center) in 1997, she modified the curriculum materials to ensure learning continuity for the students, 18 months through Grade 9. While continuing to teach, she contributed much to the interior design of Little Scholars’ new building at 8619 Stanton Road, which opened in Spring, 2005.

Since 2005, Wanda has served as a Board Member of Sipe Ministries, Inc., Principal of LITTLE SCHOLARS SCHOOLS (formerly PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS), and taught full-time until 2012 when she was forced to reduce her service to part-time due to heath issues which required multiple operations; yet, her love of children and their academic needs drove her to continue giving her all to them, as she suffered physically. Even on the evening that she fell and was so badly injured that it led to her death, she had plans and materials ready for teaching the next day. Clearly, she having taught for over 65years, was a very remarkable teacher, but she was an even more dedicated wife to Ed, her husband for over 50 years, whom she loved second only to her Savior, Jesus Christ.