Henrico Black History Month Spotlight – Helen Winfree (Peyton) Wallace

In honor of February as Black History Month, the Henrico Citizen will spotlight (on each weekday during the month) an important current or former Black resident of Henrico whose life has helped shape the county.

Educator Helen Winfree (Peyton) Wallace spent a decades-long career helping to shape generations of Richmond-area students and advance school integration.

Wallace was born Helen Winfree on Dec. 19, 1927, in the Bronx, New York, to Hugh A. Winfree and Agnes Marx. Although she was born in New York, her family’s roots were firmly in Virginia, where both her parents and her grandparents were born.

When Wallace was two years old, the family returned to Richmond, where she spent her childhood. Her father, educated in New York, worked as a hotel waiter, and the family owned a home on North Fifth Street.

Education played a central role in the Winfree household. Wallace graduated from Armstrong High School in 1945 and continued her studies at Virginia Union University. In 1949, she graduated first in her class, earning a degree in elementary education — an early indicator of the drive and academic excellence that would define her professional life.

Wallace married Walter S. Peyton III in 1946, and while raising their son, she began her teaching career at Moore Street School, later known as George Washington Carver Elementary. Balancing work and parenthood, Wallace pursued further education and earned a master’s degree in remedial reading from Northwestern University in 1955.

In 1965, she reached a historic milestone when she was selected to transfer to Westhampton Elementary School, becoming the first Black teacher to integrate in an all-white school in the Richmond Public School system. Two years later, she became the first Black vice president of the elementary teachers association within the newly integrated Teachers’ Educational Association, later serving as its president.

Her marriage to Peyton ended in divorce, and she later married Charles Wallace Jr. in 1969, settling for many years on Hungary Road in Henrico County. In 1972, she received state endorsement in learning disabilities through Virginia Commonwealth University and was promoted to director of diagnostic and prescriptive reading clinics for schools.

Throughout her career, she served as a language arts consultant, led workshops, organized reading clinics for children of all backgrounds, and presented at a statewide reading conference convened by then-Gov. Linwood Holton.

Beyond the classroom, Wallace launched “Children’s Tours,” an educational travel business, helped establish the Richmond chapter of Continental Societies Inc., and hosted exchange students from Spain.

She also worked for 30 years as a licensed real estate agent and served for decades as a Henrico County polling place worker. Her civic involvement included membership in the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Wallace died May 1, 2018, in Henrico and is buried at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Richmond.