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At 97, great-great-grandmother becomes high school's
oldest graduate To the graduating seniors of
Richmond High School, Saturday marked the beginning of a new life of work,
college or military service. To Gustava Bennett Burrus, it
marked the fulfillment of a dream she's harbored for almost nine decades,
ever since the 97-year-old's education was cut short in the fourth grade. The great-great-grandmother
walked across the stage at Richmond Auditorium Saturday morning to accept
an honorary diploma at Richmond High's graduation ceremony. She became the
oldest graduate of the San Francisco Bay area public school, which was
founded two years after her birth. "My dream has come
true," Burrus said after the ceremony, her black-and-silver hair
tucked beneath a red tasseled graduation cap. Burrus began attending computer
classes at the high school in January, her third time taking courses there
over the past decade. Her interest in computing began with the emergence
of personal computers in the 1980s, but it wasn't until this year that she
learned how to use a keyboard and mouse. "This world is going to be
a computer world," she explained. "Everything is going to be run
by computers." Burrus was born in 1905 in a
small Louisiana town, one of 10 children in a family of sharecroppers. Two
years later, her family moved to rural Oklahoma where they grew cotton,
corn, tomatoes and other crops. She attended school in a one-room school
house in Boley, Okla. until her parents pulled her out to help support the
family. At 19, her parents arranged for
her to marry a 50-year-old doctor from Tennessee, Porter Burrus Sr., who
claimed he was 30-years-old and childless, according to her youngest son,
Porter Burrus, Jr. Only after they traded vows did she learn his real age
and meet his eight children from a previous marriage, he said. Burrus' husband, who died in
1966 at the age of 88, persuaded her to stay and they went on to have 11
children of their own, including seven who graduated from Richmond High.
She has 97 grandchildren and countless great-grandchildren and
great-great-grandchildren, according to her son. After World War II, the family
moved to California to labor in Richmond's shipyards, part of a large
migration of blacks to the Bay Area. Her son said his mother is active in
her church and community and still drives often. "She has one speed:
quick," he said. "Once the garage door closes, get out of the
way." Her 74-year-old son, the Rev.
Anthony Burrus, works as a mentor at the high school and encouraged his
mother to take a computer class there. He drove her to school twice a week
for the two-hour class. Haidee Foust, Richmond High's
principal, said Burrus is well-liked by her classmates, who show her a
degree of respect rarely seen in today's teenagers. Students threw her a
party and presented her with a plaque during the last week of classes. The school decided to honor her
at its graduation ceremony to emphasize the idea that "learning is a
lifelong process," said assistant principal Marcia Hataye. "She's found the fountain
of youth in her thirst for knowledge," Principal Foust said.
"When you learn new things and do new things, it keeps you
young." Escorted by two sons, Burrus
led the procession of 256 graduating seniors entering the auditorium to
the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance." Her ceremony was attended
by several generations of family members, including her 11-year-old
great-great-grandson Rodrick Rogers, who called her an
"inspiration." Along with the honorary high
school degree, Burrus also received honorary degrees from a local
elementary school and middle school. Standing at the podium, she told her
classmates to obey their mothers and fathers and offered advice about
aging. "If you
don't want to get old, gray and wrinkled, die young," she said. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
