On yet another trip down the rabbit hole yesterday, I encountered a lady who my friends in education would enjoy: Eulalia Bourne, 1895-1984, Arizona pioneer teacher.
Other sources can better tell her story. But the highlights include
- working her way through the University of Arizona and graduating summa cum laude, in spite of apparently having never graduated from high school;
- getting fired for dancing;
- commuting a hundred miles once a week to stay at the school the rest of the week;
- publishing her students’ work as The Little Cowpuncher school newspaper (“a unique historical document of Southern Arizona ranching communities from 1932 to 1943”);
- writing several books, including her memoirs Nine Months is a Year (purchase in print here, or read online here), and Woman in Levi’s (purchase in print here, or read online here);
- And she punched a few dogies (definition by the dearly departed Clay Thompson) in her day, too!
Please read more about this enlightened educator at Arizona Highways.