In this article the author profiles Oneida Cockrell, a pioneer in the field of early childhood education. She was the founder and director of the Garden Apartments Nursery School and Kindergarten, located in the prestigious Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments building (commonly known as the Rosenwald Apartments) in Chicago's West Hyde Park neighborhood. Cockrell had many successes, but her greatest triumph was teaching and guiding young children through their early, formative years. One of the children whose lives she touched is Barbara Taylor Bowman, a nationally known early childhood educator from Chicago. The author's interviews with Cockrell's son and granddaughter, Alfred Cockrell and Jane Colleton, form the basis of this article.