When I began writing this column, I knew that I wanted to occasionally highlight several issues that are significant in our area. This week, I did not realize this would be one of those times.
I had heard good things about Mrs. Tanya Boler, a pastor’s wife, a mother of two, and an English teacher at East Central Community College. However, our conversation concerning her own history for this column was overshadowed by the story of her son, Corey, his fall into drug addiction at the age of 16 in 2003, and his subsequent deliverance and ministry to addicts. I hope to chronicle this next week, for the glory of God and to emphasize the tragedy of drug addiction in our own town and county.
Tanya was born June 20, 1965, to parents Hulon and Margie Hillman of Union. Mr. Hillman has just retired, after building houses for many years in this area, while Tanya’s mother has worked both as a homemaker and an assistant teacher. Her older brother, Iran Hillman, is a cattle farmer whose wife, Pam, writes Christian fiction.
Tanya said she ran track in junior high and high school but has always been a musician first, even becoming the church pianist at the age of 12. She and her husband Ricky met at Union High School, and a fond memory for her is that they both had parts in the school musical Oklahoma. They started singing together when they were dating and were married May 17, 1985, the same year Tanya graduated from East Central. A 1983 graduate of Union High School, she finished at Mississippi State University in 1990, earning her B.S. degree in Secondary Education. She earned her Master’s in English from MS State in 1996. Tanya had also taken courses in banking and finance and had studied business a semester at the University of Southern Mississippi, “to prove Dad wrong. He said I’d be an English teacher!”
Having been an honor graduate several times, she became an English teacher. Her first three years were at Newton County High School, the next four were spent teaching at Philadelphia High School, and she taught the next four at Union High School. In 2002, Mrs. Boler began teaching English at East Central Community College and continues, having completed 16 years there so far. One accomplishment of which she is rightfully proud is that she became the first National Board Certified Teacher in Newton County in 1998.
Tanya’s grandparents were Methodist, but in the late 1930’s “were filled with the Spirit.” Her great-grandfather donated land for them to build a church, which was affiliated with the Assemblies of God national denomination for a number of years. Tanya grew up in this small country church. For more than 60 years, her grandfather, Rev. Dow Graham, was the pastor of what is now White Plains Holiness Assembly, a non-denominational fellowship located between Union and Sebastopol.
As Rev. Graham neared retirement age, he had Ricky Boler speak occasionally on Sunday nights. He did the same with another young man, Mitchell Graham, so now the two pastor the church as a team. Mrs. Boler said, “It works really well!” After working for Tanya’s father in construction for several years, in 1994 Ricky built a chicken farm. Still farming chickens while pastoring the church, Rev. Boler is also a funeral director at Milling Funeral Home.
Their first child, Corey Nathaniel, was born in 1986, and in 1993, Aislin Lorene completed the family. Both children, also brought up in the White Plains Holiness Assembly, play music with their parents, as well as Ashley, Corey’s wife. Their daughter Aislin is now a mental health therapist with Weems. The Bolers have four grandchildren: Taylor, Andrew, Lathan, and Rosie.
Tanya told me she was thirteen and at a youth camp in South Alabama when she received Christ as her Savior. “However,” she continued, “it would be years later when my faith would be tested as we went through the darkest hours of our lives as we struggled to understand why our handsome, smart, talented kid was completely overtaken by drug addiction.” Corey had become addicted to drugs at the age of sixteen.
After several years of a battle that included an overdose, Corey experienced complete deliverance at the Home of Grace in Vancleave, where the motto is “a place where miracles happen.” He is now the disciplinary counselor at the Home of Grace. Corey and his wife, Ashley, now a nurse-manager with a veteran’s hospital, were married Dec. 31, 2016.
When I asked what she would like to do in the future, Tanya replied, “Because of the years-long struggle our family has faced with drug addiction, we have made our family mission and our church mission focus on helping addicts get into Christ-centered rehabs.
My dream job would be to be a liaison between rehabs and the outside world. I have a dream of creating a network of people and churches to provide jobs, sober-living housing, legal aid, mental health services, and spiritual discipleship to recovering addicts. Our family is living proof that there is hope in an increasingly dismal world. Drug addiction is like a deadly cancer that has eaten away at the very core of our society, and it shows no favoritism. I’ve met some of the most talented, most intelligent, and most beautiful people who have allowed drug addiction to devastate their lives. There is hope.”
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
