Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 07: DIRECTORS
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Mildred Mahoney
Administrative
Headstart
Miildred Mahoney and Gayle Cootes to right. [89_LW_school_library_s_005e]
MILDRED MAHONEY Administrative
Teacher, First and Second Grades 1953 – 1964
Co-founder & Coordinator, Little School 1963 – 1964
Kindergarten Teacher 1964 – ?
Part-time Secretary to Director Burton Rogers 1949 – 1972
Assistant to Director Robin Lambert 1997 – 1999
General Volunteer 1993 – 2000
Interim Director October 1996 – August 1997
Member, Board of Trustees 1973 – 2001,
Honorary Board Member 2001-2016
TAGS: Mildred Mahoney, Head Start program, Little School, Project Head Start, education, early childhood education, childcare, Head Start Training Program, Robert E. Cooke, M.D, War on Poverty, Rebecca Caudill, Robert E. Cooke, Office of Child Development, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,
MILDRED MAHONEY “Little School”
“THESE ARE DEVASTATING CUTS, which will absolutely gut the offices, and make it so they can’t function in a way to meaningfully support the child care law,” Friedman said. “I strongly believe that, ultimately, what this is going to mean is that childcare will become less safe, more expensive, and harder to find.”
It’s hard not to wonder if the damage is intentional, given that Project 2025 called for wiping out Head Start and the existing child-care subsidy system—and that trying to do that by passing legislation would be difficult politically. That’s especially true for Head Start, a legacy of the Great Society that polls have found to be highly popular.
“Whatever the administration’s true motives, the [recent] firings send a clear message about how much it values early-childhood programs—and the people who work in them—in a way that could have long-term consequences.”
Jonathan Cohn wrote this in a recent article for THE BREAKDOWN a Bulwark Newsletter, April 6, 2025 —
Mildred Mahoney knew the long-term consequences of not addressing early-childhood education in 1964.
At Pine Mountain Settlement, few staff believed more deeply in early childhood education than Mildred ( “Milly” ) Mahoney. Her work to establish a rich, coherent, and community-engaged program that would serve the local Pine Mountain Valley community caught the eye of the Department of Health and Human Services in the Kennedy and Johnson Administration. Her innovative work brought her into contact with the staff of the Department, who were looking for models and trainers of early educational stimulation for children and later for infants and toddlers.
Mahoney’s program had begun as a summer program and then evolved as a year-round service, stimulated by the ideas coming from the staff in the Administration for Children and Families, which was within the Department of Health and Human Services. The program was rapidly expanding and was being modified to serve rural and non-rural children. Later, millions of children and their families benefited from the educational stimulation that enhanced school readiness and personal development offered for pre-school children. Mahoney’s early program at Pine Mountain is remarkable for its foresight and her contributions to the development of the national program.
Milly’s summer program, like the national model, periodically offered year-round services to families with infants and toddlers, and increased preparation for youngsters entering the public school later created at Green Hill, near Pine Mountain Settlement.
Noted children’s author Rebecca Caudill, a friend of Pine Mountain Settlement, said in 1964 of the Pine Mountain Settlement “Little School”:
…Though it is difficult to estimate the extent of the value of Little School, it is easy to see that the values are real and important and lasting. …. The children attending Pine Mountain Little School have a head start on mountain children for whom this luxury is not available. They are wisely prepared for real school. It is not too much to hope and expect that in due time they will help to bring up the average of high school graduates from the mountain counties so that it more nearly approximates the national average. What is of greater importance is that in their tender years they are learning to walk alone toward the goal of integrated, capable, creative personalities in a society where character and ability are greatly needed.
Mahoney’s early work with “Little School” caught the attention of the Head Start program that was evolving in Washington in 1964 -1965. Milly was invited to become a staff member of the Head Start Training Programs at the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University and served as a consultant for the Harlan County, KY Head Start Program, one of the earliest of the programs in the development of Head Start.
In 1969, under the Nixon administration, Head Start was transferred from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Office of Child Development in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
See Also:
MILDRED MAHONEY Correspondence
MILDRED MAHONEY Interim Director– Biography
