May 15, 1968
Page 13381
MRS. FRANCES P. YORK, 72-YEAR-OLD GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, RECEIVES HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I invite the attention of the Senate to an article published in the May 9 issue of the Portland Press Herald, of Maine. The article tells the story of Mrs. Frances P. York, of South Portland, a 72-year-old great-grandmother who has just received her high school diploma.
When asked why she returned to school after so many years, she replied:
I feel there should be no end to learning. After you get into it, it is something to be enjoyed.
I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in the RECORD as an example that we are never too old for expanding our horizons. May many more Americans join Mrs. York in enjoying the new horizons that only education can bring.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[From the Portland Press Herald, May 9, 1968]
GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, 72, IS THE PROUDEST GRADUATE
(By Marjorie Sinclair)
It's noteworthy to see a high school dropout return to classes and earn a diploma. And when that dropout is a 72-year-old great-grandmother who left school 54 years ago, the occasion merits some very special recognition
Mrs. Frances P. York, 521 Ocean St., South Portland, had the kind of recognition Wednesday night which makes a woman happiest. As she received her diploma from Portland Evening School, her son and grandson were in the audience. They had come here from California just to see her graduate.
Her son is Harold York of Northridge, Calif. Her grandson, Stephen, 17, is a high school student there. She also has great-grandchildren living in Ohio.
Mrs. York left a Dover, N.H., high school during her senior year in 1914 to help out at home after the death of her father.
"But I always had the idea that sometime I would go back to get that diploma," she said.
It took her 54 years because in the interim she has raised a family and then operated Ledgemere Country Day School at Cape Elizabeth for 31 years.
In the 1966-67 school year, she began to taper off her nursery school activities, working only half days. This season she quit permanently, except for occasional substitute work. Then she decided to return to high school and get the diploma.
"After spending 31 years in kindergarten, it was nice to have a promotion," she quipped.
Mrs. York enrolled for two courses in English, one in history and one in sewing to earn enough credits to complete requirements for graduation.
She was a straight-A student but for awhile it seemed she might not graduate. "I had a terrible time getting my credits from Dover," she explained. "They had just moved into a new high school and the records hadn't been straightened out. It took from September to January to get them. If they hadn't found them I don't know what might have happened."
However, she was assured by Principal James E. Flanagan of Portland Evening School that he would find some way for her to get sufficient credits for her diploma.
"He was wonderful," Mrs. York said, "The whole experience was wonderful. It was nice to have something to do. Also, I met so many different people. I've made some wonderful friends there."
Now that Mrs. York has her treasured diploma she is toying with the idea of attending a class or two at the University of Maine in Portland where she once took a nursery school course.
"A friend asked me why I would want to do it," she related. "I feel there should be no end to learning. After you get into it, it is something to be enjoyed."
Mrs. York enjoyed her courses so much that she chalked up a perfect attendance record for the twice-weekly sessions from October until commencement.
She said she hopes her achievement will encourage other people no longer young to return to school.
"I noted a few enrollees on opening night last fall who seemed hesitant about starting," she related. "I had a little talk with one of them and tried to make him see he was not too old. After all, he was only 50."
Mrs. York said she is "absolutely flabbergasted" by the number of cards and congratulatory messages she received in recognition of her graduation.
"I've only done what I should have done 50 years ago," she stated.