Hometown: Abilene, Texas;
Present city: Dallas;
Education: Hardin Simmons University, B.S., Education; Southern Methodist University, M.L.A.
Tell us about your family.
I have two younger sisters and one brother, two grown children, Robert and Claire, and three grandchildren: Genevieve, a senior at Woodrow Wilson High School; Anson, a freshman at Woodrow; and Finnigan, a fifth grader. Bob and I met in high school in Abilene in 1959 and have been married for 60 years.
How about your work or volunteer life?
I put Bob through a year of graduate school and law school as an elementary school teacher in Austin. When he worked as a judicial law clerk, I taught another year in Montgomery, Alabama, before we moved to Atlanta, where Bob started his law practice and Robert was born. We moved to Dallas in 1975. I have volunteered at Children’s Medical Center and Mockingbird Elementary School. At Wilshire I was involved with Family Pathfinders, working to help single moms find meaningful work, and with the Environmental Stewardship Committee in the 1980s.
Any favorite hobbies?
I love to read history, especially about the Civil War and World War II Germany. I also love roaming through antique malls and going to estate sales.
What are your favorite places to travel?
England, especially the Cotswolds, and Scotland. Santa Fe and Colorado here in the states.
What brought you to Wilshire and when?
Phil and Carolyn Strickland introduced us to Wilshire when we returned to Texas from Georgia in 1975.
Where are you engaged at Wilshire?
I am a member of Compass Class and serve as a Stephen Minister. I am currently a Deacon Emeritus.
Tell us about your faith journey.
I made a profession of faith when I was 9 and was an active teenager and college student at First Baptist, Abilene. After having been away from church for a while, it has been very rewarding to be part of Wilshire for almost 50 years.
What’s something interesting most people would not know about you?
I was part of the first integrated faculty at George Washington Carver Elementary School in Montgomery, Alabama. My fourth grade students, all African American, had never had a white teacher. The girls welcomed me immediately; the boys were skeptical, and their trust had to be earned.
What adjectives best describe you?
Serious, empathetic and a good listener.
*If you are interested in being featured in an upcoming I Am Wilshire feature, contact Carolyn Murray (cmurray@wilshirebc.org)