GRACE M. ROOD STORIES We Take Teenie To Graduation

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Series 14: MEDICAL Grace M. Rood, Nurse, 1936-1962
Grace Margaret Rood (1897-1988)
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES
We Take Teenie To Graduation

466 Juanita Scearce Cornett, Audrey McIntyre, Jack Cornett at the home of Columbus Creech (early 1960s). [creech_columbus_4_466]

TAGS: Grace M. Rood, Asheville, North Carolina, Harlan County, Kentucky, 1955, Kentucky, history,

GRACE M. ROOD STORIES We Take Teenie To Graduation

The boarding school at Pine Mountain was disbanded to change to an elementary school [1949]. Now our people would have to send their children away for high school education, unless they rode a bus 30 miles to the county school. One of the departing teachers was so concerned that two of the girls.(sisters) would miss an education, that she offered to send money each month for their expenses at Redbird settlement boarding school, 35 miles away. We helped through our used clothing., and their father, who was a truck driver, bought a pair of khaki pants and drove them over. They went right through the 4 years coming. home in the summers and spending some of the time at our place, working to pay on their expenses.

Their mother,Teenie, had never had the time or the opportunity to leave the other 10 children and visit the place where the girls were learning. When it came time for their graduation, I was determined that she should have the chance to see her daughters graduate. This would seem easy, But I had never seen Teenie in anything else but jeans and a hanging-out shirt; and she must honor her daughters by being as well-dressed as the other mothers. I approached the four lady teachers [at the PM School], and they agreed to help me outfit her properly and loan her a dress. I drove Teenie up [to the School] to pick out which one she liked and would fit her. They added slip, bra, panties and hose, but since she had large feet, her husband bought the shoes. A neighbor offered to give her a home permanent. So she was all set up.

At 8:00 AM, I drove up in my Jeep to find a transformed woman. Besides the dress and scarf, white handbag, gloves and hat (we wore them in those days!), she had a string of pearls and even clip-on earrings. I sat in the back while [husband] Frank, drove with her beside him to make a good impression as we drove in [to Red Bird Mission School]. The girls were at the entrance waiting for us and grabbed at their mother. They immediately took her to their room, straightened her hair and hat a little, re-did her lipstick, and face powder. (I had donated half a box of powder and the end of a lipstick.) And then they strolled out with their mother between them, arm in arm! I was amazed! I could hardly have told which was the mother and daughter! They were proud to introduce her to their teachers and friends. And she was proud to sit up straight and see them receive their diplomas.

I really hated to take back the clothes. etc., after we reached home, ” but she didn’t hesitate to say, ” Wait a minute until I get these things off.” Since she did not have the facilities for laundering, I promised to take care of that.

The girls each took a year’s course in Practical Nursing. One made it her career. both married and raised families. I visited Teenie years later, after my retirement, and found her working in the garden, still in her Jeans. Her husband was an invalid, following an accident. She had been very sick and looked so tired and forlorn. That my eyes filled with tears as I left.

But I could remember the day we had gone to her girl’s graduation, and she walked happy and proud between them. That trip had been successful and a joy to think upon.

END

SEE

GRACE M. ROOD Staff
GRACE M. ROOD Correspondence 1940
GRACE M. ROOD Correspondence 1962

GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Lonnie McQueen’s Memory of Miss Rood

GRACE M. ROOD Photograph Album Gallery One
GRACE M. ROOD PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM Gallery Two

PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL COLLECTIONS

"Over 100 years enriching lives and connecting people through Appalachian place-based education for all ages."

GRACE M. ROOD STORIES We Take Teenie To Graduation

GRACE M. ROOD STORIES We Take Teenie To Graduation