History lives in the hallways and classrooms, down streets into neighborhoods and in the hearts and minds of today’s students and staff members at places like Hay Branch Elementary School.
In a powerful living history lesson at the Killeen school Thursday, Principal Carolyn Dugger introduced the daughter of one her close friends who attended school with her oldest daughter.
Jessica Gonzalez, currently a Killeen city councilwoman and local realtor, told families at Hay Branch Elementary about her late mother, Mary Hollmon, a 40-year KISD teacher who worked alongside Dugger and the late Alice Douse.
Douse was also a longtime educator in KISD who was the first female African-American principal in KISD.
Now she’s known to many as the namesake of another KISD campus, Alice W. Douse Elementary School.
To Dugger, Douse was a close friend and mentor and to Gonzalez, she was a huge motivator and inspiration.
Another KISD trailblazer, the district’s first African-American principal Dock Jackson, hired Douse as a teacher in 1964 at Marlboro Elementary School. Today, that building is repurposed and called the Dock Jackson Professional Learning Center.
Douse was principal at Haynes Elementary School nine years before moving over to Hay Branch Elementary in 1986, the year it opened. She remained in that position until her retirement in 1996.
The longtime educator remained highly active in the Killeen community, often visiting schools and participating in Black History Month and other celebrations.
Speaking during a monthly family night at Hay Branch, Gonzalez told students they walk among giants referring to the many leaders who built the foundation of learning and caring that benefits them today.
Speaking of Douse and of Hollmon, Gonzalez and Dugger described educators of the highest character who led by example and passed on rich legacies of respect and compassion.
“You have giants and angels and powerful superheroes all around you,” Gonzalez said, piquing the interest of students in the audience.
“Sometimes we have to give ourselves grace in dealing with our children and we need to be reminded of our history,” she said. “We have an obligation to help our children know there is no perfect foundation. We have the opportunity to build on our foundation.”
She described her mother’s deep care lived out as a mother and teacher. She asked the children to define the word inspiration, and one student did explain how we are led negatively or positively by the actions of others.
“They grew up in the Great Depression, were teenagers in the Civil Rights Movement and they were able to become educators,” Gonzalez said of her parents, her mother a teacher and her father a soldier.
Growing up in a challenging time of history gave her parents the strength to build a strong foundation for their children. They urged her to take the best of those they meet and share those lessons with others.
“Sometimes we need those silent angels. If I take the best of those people, I can share them with you.”
“If you have a dream, something you want to accomplish, you can do it,” she said, recalling what her mother taught her.
“I always wanted to leave Killeen as a young person. As I got older, I realized that we have the best place in the world because the world comes to us. Opportunity, culture and education is here. It’s up to us to choose what to do with that information.”
“If you can see it, if you can feel it, you can be it and you can do it,” she said, pointing out that there are teachers, counselors, neighbors and others who care and are willing to help others.
Following the living history lesson, family members walked through the school taking part in math games.
Much of the decoration and student work illustrated ongoing Black History Month lessons.
Photo gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/killeenisd/albums/72177720331999307