Note: Vivian Anderson Castleberry is a 1940 graduate of Athens High School who was inducted into the inaugural class of the Hornet Hall of Fame during a Sept. 15, 2016, gala. During her 28 years as an editor at the Dallas Times Herald, she revolutionized how women’s news was covered. She retired in 1984 and started Peacemakers Incorporated, which continues to this day to promote the pursuit of peaceful resolution and women’s empowerment globally. She is a member of the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame and the namesake of the University of North Texas Castleberry Peace Institute.
Dear Athens,
I have been re-experiencing all the lovely things that happened to me in Athens over the weekend. From the moment I signed in with Stephanie at Holiday Inn Thursday until my daughters Cathy and Chanda and I signed out Saturday morning at 11, it could not have been a more perfect experience. My appreciation to Toni Clay who looked after me from the first invitation through the final good-bye is boundless, and I am enriched by everyone who touched my life during the 43 hours I was “back home.”
When I remember the weekend, certain things will stand out. I am grateful that the quality of the AHS teachers and administrators continues to be as excellent as I remember in my high school days. I am overwhelmingly grateful that the district found and chose an African-American (R.C. Fisher) to share honors with me and fellow inductee Drew Douglas. I will always remember the faces of individuals who lined the parade path: Blacks and Hispanics (so different from my own days, though even then many, many were working toward the day that this would have happened); the faces of residents of the nursing home whose rockers and chairs and walkers lined the porch of their home and who waved; the beautiful Dr. Fran McCain and her delightful husband, who wasted no time in the three years they have been residents to assume a leadership role in the community; the group of beautiful girls at Athens High School who paid me the honor of listening to a woman old enough to be their great-grandmother; the courtesy of other students who stood aside, opened doors, waited patiently while I slowed their usual path to classes and extracurricular activities; Madeline Clay, who shares my passion for high school debate; and the CHILDREN—everywhere the children who lined the parade path with their parents and who lifted my heart, proof that the next generation will continue to excel; Ward Wilbanks who drove the Jeep in the parade; Thomas Faulk, who escorted me onto the 50-yard line in his golf cart (never dreamed I’d ever stand on a 50-yard line!); Drew Douglas, who is a living example of servant leadership, something I most admire and to which I have long aspired. I am also grateful that I got to share the experience with four of my five daughters (the oldest lives in Omaha and was retiring from a 30-year career even as we were partying in Athens), with my East Texas nieces, nephews and cousins and with three of my Peacemaker board members who drove down from Dallas.
On Saturday morning Cathy, Chanda and I explored the site where my parents rented acreage in 1935 and established the Anderson Dairy, and drove out and around the house, in the fork of the road between the Old Palestine Highway and FM 1615, where I lived during my entire high school days, and drove past the Athens Airport which my brother, Quinton Anderson, opened shortly after World War II and where he taught a generation of Athenians to fly. We drove around the Athens City Cemetery and remembered my parents, both of my brothers and countless relatives and friends who are at rest there, and stopped to leave the flowers that had graced our table at the Athens Country Club (best food, most courteous attendants) on the tiny grave of our infant son, who lived for only two days in 1950.
What a weekend. How very, very grateful I am.
Vivian Anderson Castleberry