Dr. Para Porter

Para Porter VanZandt passed away on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, in Waco. Dr. Para Beatrice Wright Porter was born January 14, 1915, in Malone, Texas, the daughter of James Thomas Wright and Margaret Jane Wells Wright. On December 23, 1935, she married Andrew Washington Porter in Hillsboro, Texas. Their children are James Patrick Porter and Drue Annelle Porter Parker. Para was a member of Seventh & James Baptist Church in Waco. Dr. Porter was the first woman to get a Ph.D. from Baylor University in Waco, receiving her degree from the Department of Education in 1960. She retired after 42 years as teacher in the high school, intermediate, and elementary grades and an educator at the college and university level. From the time she was quite young, Para's ambition was to be a schoolteacher and to be a very good one. Para's mother named her daughter for a beautiful, lovely and kind teacher she remembered, Miss Paralee. One of Maggie Wright's greatest hopes was that her daughter Para too would be a teacher. At about age 8, Para began assembling a following of 5 or 6 neighborhood preschoolers, including her younger sister Mildred, at a designated spot under a favorite shade tree to teach them the day's lessons. Para later wrote, I taught them to count, do simple addition and subtraction, and to do other things that I had learned in school. Mother looking out the window probably said, 'Rejoice, she's on her way to becoming the teacher that I want her to be.' Years later, her sister Mildred paid Para the greatest compliment by saying, You know I went to school a number of years before I learned anything. You'd already taught everything to me. When one of the Malone teachers, Lorena B. Stretch, left Malone and pursued her doctorate in education at Columbia University, sending a graduation announcement to the Wright family, the child Para knew that another of her dreams would be to someday get a doctorate in education as well to be among the best in teaching. Para graduated from Malone High School in 1932. During the depression, money was tight, but as valedictorian, she received college tuition for a year, and was able to live with her Aunt Lizzie in Hillsboro to start Hill Junior College. At the end of that year, her father Jim told Para that he could not pay for a daughter to go to college when his sons had families that needed help to live and feed their children. But Para never gave up, and a year later, she was able to get a part time job as a teachers' aide in Hillsboro to pay her tuition and convinced him to let her return to Hill Junior College. Unfortunately, Para's mother died suddenly during that year before Para graduated from Hill Junior College and realized the dream of getting her first teaching job in Cottonwood, Texas, near Malone. Soon, Para went to North Texas State College now University of North Texas. By continuing through the summers, she was able to receive both her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from there in the same calendar year in 1938. After that, Para taught in a number of Texas schools, including Malone, Conroe, and Dawson. She was also a supervisor for the County Superintendent's Office in Hillsboro. Between 1954 and 1961, Para taught English at Hillsboro High School. During that time, she began working on her doctorate at Baylor University. While teaching full time and rearing two young children, James Patrick and Drue Annelle, Para completed the coursework, as well as her dissertation, which was under the direction of Dr. Lorena B. Stretch, one of her mentors from childhood. In 1960, Para Beatrice Wright Porter became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from Baylor University in Waco, as her family looked on. Later, she taught at the college and university level as Director of Student Teaching and Associate Professor of Education at Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana from 1961 to 1962; as Assistant Professor and Supervisor of Student Teaching at East Texas State University now University of A&M – Commerce from 1962 to 1966; and as Assistant Professor and Supervisor of Student Teaching at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, from 1966 to 1971. Nationally recognized for her expertise in teaching reading and early childhood education, Dr. Porter was a speaker and panelist at the International Reading Association and the Association of American Childhood Education International. Among her publications are What to Teach in Reading; Practical Activities. She also co-authored Practical Ideas and Activities for Preschool Enrichment Programs