Graduation Day

Norma Jean Hurst

Graduation Day, June 1964 

East Tennessee State University

   

     My mother, Norma Jean Hurst, was THE FIRST MEMBER OF HER FAMILY to graduate from college.  My grandparents each attended school through the eighth grade but because the only high school in Union County was too far from where they lived they weren't able to go.  My grandfather was determined to get an education however, and he attended the local schoolhouse for two more years until his brothers made so much fun of him for being in the eighth grade for three years that he finally stopped going. 

     While serving in the Army during WWII my grandfather was given an IQ test. His score was somewhere in the 130 range. When he returned home he was encouraged by someone in the armed forces to attend college and was told he would do well.  By this time though he was 24 years old, recovering from battle injuries, had a wife and two daughters at home and another child on the way.  I can only speculate at his reasons for not going but it seems he had a lot on his plate. His three daughters all went to college though.  All three. And his five grandchildren - we have earned five undergraduate degrees and five post-graduate degrees.  There are many factors that have contributed to the five of us succeeding in college but I think that being raised in households where going to college was expected and encouraged by mothers who were raised in a household where attending college was a real possibility contributed significantly to all of our success.