In June 1921, a group of South Norfolk residents believed Rena Belle Wright's time had come.

They went to the School Board to back Wright's appointment as principal of the high school. Another group wanted a man to fill the job.

Wright had been educating children in Portlock and South Norfolk since the late 1800s and had led the school. Her supporters thought she had the experience to do the job.

"Even though Miss Wright was more experienced, in those days, it was strictly a man's world and the board voted to hire Mr. Grover Cleveland Outland," local author and historian Raymond L. Harper wrote in his book, "History of South Norfolk, 1661-1963."

Wright was appointed assistant principal.

She didn't get the job, but her name lives on at Rena B. Wright Primary School at 600 Park Ave.

From what Harper remembers, Wright often filled in as principal and taught Latin and other subjects decades before Chesapeake became a city.

"She was a thin, short little lady and she always wore a dress that came down to her ankles," Harper said recently.

Wright wore a wig and commanded respect, Harper said.

"Today, being a grown person, I say she was strict, but back in those days, all of us said she was meaner than 'H,' " Harper said.

A self-described good student, Harper said he never personally learned about Wright's no-nonsense style when he attended the South Norfolk Grammar School in the 1930s.

"She was in charge, and you didn't want to face her at all," Harper said. "That little lady, she could handle the biggest guy there was."

Not much else is known about Wright. At age 16, she came to Hampton Roads from Bowling Green to serve as a governess to the children of a family in the Brambleton area and served as a tutor for a doctor's children, Harper wrote.

She taught in the Portlock School and spent more than 45 years educating children in South Norfolk.

She retired, according to Harper, in 1942 and moved into her sister's home on Rhode Island Avenue in Norfolk's Colonial Place neighborhood.  The sister, Annie Wright Moore, was a widow, and she died at age 86, in 1959.

Wright died in March 1946 at age 78, according to her obituary published in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. It summed up her career this way: "In the course of these years, she taught most of the leading citizens of the Southside, as well as the children of many of them."

The first school building named for Wright was built in 1900 and stood at 20th and B streets, according to a newspaper account from the late 1960s.   It consisted of three brick buildings.  A new school was built and the school that now carries her name was dedicated on Oct. 24, 1971.