Remembering Aunt Laura

Permit me to indulge briefly in some personal memories. I've been reading the Master's thesis written by my great aunt, Laura Bonnie Imes, in 1933.

She was earning her graduate degree at Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison and her subject was "The History of the Admission of Arizona to Statehood, With Especial Attention to the Part Played By the Judicial Recall."

It is very well written and for years her work stood as the final word on the subject. As I read, I can hear her voice. It is a reminder of a remarkable person.

She taught elementary school for years in Glendale, Arizona. Many of her students couldn't afford shoes. [She and her brother Isaac, another teacher, bought shoes for students out of what had to be meager personal funds.] She volunteered to teach the "Mexican" children and studied Spanish as a result. She also taught her students how to play baseball and umpired their games.

She never married. After she reached a mandatory retirement age in Glendale, she taught in the mining town of Superior, Arizona. A rock-ribbed Republican, she often argued with one of her sisters, an equally ardent Democrat. I loved them both.

Reading the thesis, I am reminded of how as children we only see one aspect of a person and may never begin to appreciate their full worth.