After graduating in 1964 as Valedictorian of my class, I attended West Texas State (now West Texas A and M) University.  I moved to Oklahoma with my first husband for his job and returned to college at Southwestern Oklahoma State, from which I graduated with a BA and  an MEd from Southwestern Oklahoma State, and did some further graduate work at Texas A&M.  I married my second husband, Christopher Gould, in 1982.  He is a retired full professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he chaired the Department of English for eight years.

I taught composition and American literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington from 1987 to 2010, serving for 10 years as the Undergraduate Coordinator of Advising in the Department of English.  During my career I published several poems and some articles, and I coauthored the ninth edition a college-level composition textbook that came out in 2013.  I was a reader for the Advanced Placement Composition and Literature Exam for 17 years.  I also created two courses for the English Department at UNCW, Illness and Disability in Literature, and as an offshoot of my huge interest in theater, Pulitzer Prize Drama.  For the latter, I had the pleasure of having the famous character actor Pat Hingle, who had retired to the area, speak to my class the first year.  He had appeared on Broadway in three of the plays I was teaching.

My son by my first marriage, Neill, died at age 23 following an automobile accident.  My daughter, Emily, born in 1984, graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2006.  She worked for a year with Americorps, building houses for Habitat for Humanity.  After that she became a licensed real estate broker and now manages three apartment complexes in Wilmington, NC.  Several years ago she “retired” from women’s flat-track roller derby.  She has been in a long-term relationship with a wonderful young man, David.

I did theater work in college in Oklahoma and community theater work in Amarillo and in Oklahoma.  My husband and I travel extensively, having been to every state except Hawaii, much of Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Greek Islands, Malta, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, St. Petersburg, and various cruise ports (ten cruises so far). Of course I read a lot.   It would surprise people to know that I took a fencing class when I was 50, and I sang “Danny Boy” in a piano bar on a cruise, and “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” and “Do it to Me One More Time” in a karaoke bar.

     I attended Hamlin Public Schools beginning as a first grader in 1952 and graduating in 1964. After graduation, I attended McMurry College for one year, then transferred to Hardin Simmons University and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education in 1968. Later, while serving in the US Navy stationed at the Pentagon, I attended and graduated from George Washington University in 1972 with a Masters Degree in Special Education.

     My parents moved to Hamlin in 1949 and soon thereafter, I met Judy Fitzgerald in the First Baptist Church nursery. I don’t remember much about that first meeting, but in 1966, in that same church, I married Judy Fitzgerald! This past June we celebrated our 58^th Wedding Anniversary. We have one daughter, J’Nae, who now lives in Franklin, TN.  She graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Music-Vocal Jazz.  She later completed graduate studies in Music-Song Writing at UCLA. She is a Jazz Vocalist/Pianist and sang professionally for over twenty years in the Los Angeles area. She has now moved to Nashville and continues her singer/songwriter career while teaching music at BrightStone, a day program for adults with Developmental Disabilities. Before J’Nae, the music teacher at BrightStone for 17 years was her mother, Judy. We like to keep things in the family! J’Nae also has studied interior design and recently received her License as a General Contractor in Tennessee. She flips houses and enjoys buying and selling real estate. Judy and I are also co-guardians of her brother, Alan.  He grew up in Hamlin, is now 69 years old and lives in a supported living home in Fort Worth. Alan has had a profound influence on our family and we are blessed to have him in our lives!

     While attending college, I began working in direct support services at the Abilene State School. After graduating, I taught Special Education in Abilene public schools for one year before joining the Navy in 1969. After four years and assignments in Norfolk, VA, Boston, MA and Washington, DC, I returned to Texas and began a long career of working with individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). This included working for the Texas State Commission for the Blind, followed by many years with the Texas Department of MHMR. I worked in various management positions in five different state facilities throughout the state and spent the last thirteen years of my tenure in Austin as the State Director of Intellectual Disabilities. As State Director, I worked to improve the services in all Texas state facilities and to provide homes in the community for adult men and women with IDD. After retiring from state service in 1996, I provided consulting services in a number of states throughout the country. In addition to consulting, I was appointed by the federal court as a member and later chairman of the Quality Review Panel.  The Panel, established because of a class action lawsuit, provided information directly to the federal judge and ongoing monitoring of the services provided by the state of Tennessee. I retired from that position in 2018 after the requirements of the lawsuit were completed.

     Judy and I moved from Texas to California, where we lived for three years before moving to Nashville in 1999. We enjoy traveling in our motorhome throughout the US.  We are both members of the First Presbyterian Church choir and have traveled with the choir to Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland and Eastern Germany. We had the wonderful opportunity to visit Japan where our daughter had a residency at the Grand Hyatt Regency Hotel in Fukuoka.  We attend all the traveling Broadway Musicals at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and enjoy the live music opportunities that Nashville offers.

     We are both proud to have grown up in Hamlin and graduating from HHS. We have attended all the Class of 1964 Reunions for our 10^th, 20^th, 25^th, 30^th, 40^th, 50^th, 55^th and now our 60^th!  Wow, we are getting old!