HomeMy WebLinkAboutMora Boone - BioMora Evelyn Waddell Boone
Mora was bom December 23, 1901 to Homer Arthur Waddle (Waddell) and
Susie Annie White in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, the fifth of eight
children.
In 1906-07 the family moved by train to Floydada, then by covered wagon
to Alpine.
In 1908 the family moved to San Antonio, where Mora started school.
The family lived in Cuero, 1910-1911, where Mora?s father owned a drug
store. After the drug store burned, the family lived in Navidad
(Jackson County), San Antonio and Asherton before establishing
permanent residence in Houston in 1918, where Homer and Susie lived
Page 2 of 3
until they died (Homer in 1945 and Susie in 1966). Mora attended
Central High School, the only high school in the city of Houston at the
time. At the end of her senior yeaz there she was lacking one or two
credits for graduation. Since it was not considered important for girls
to have a high school diploma in those days, she did not return to
school the following Fall.
On December 25, 1921 Mora married James L. Boone, a teacher and farmer
in the Alief community about 15 miles southwest of Houston. A son,
James, Jr. was born to them on May 15, 1923 and they had a second son,
Homer Sylvester, born on December 15, 1924. James worked the family
farm while teaching and serving as high school principal in the Alief
Independent School District until 1930, when he was elected
Superintendent of Schools for the Beasley Independent School District
in Fort Bend County.
Wanting to become a teacher, Mora started taking college courses in
1930, twelve years after completing high school. She was admitted to
Texas A&M without a high school diploma. She took courses at Texas A&M
in the summers and took correspondence courses during the regular
school yeaz. In 1932 she had enough credits to begin teaching English
and literature at Beasley High School. Despite a petition to the A&M
Boazd of Directors by the many women who were attending the ABcM summer
sessions, the college steadfastly refused to grant degrees to women, so
Mora completed her last 30 credits at Sam Houston, and received her B.
S. degree in English and History there in 1937.
Mora taught at Beasley from 1932 to 1942, when she and James moved to
Lolita (Jackson County). They moved to Needville (Fort Bend County) in
1947. James was the superintendent at these schools, and Mora continued
as an English and literature teacher until she earned a Master of
Library Science degree at Sam Houston in 1951. She served as a teacher
and school librarian at Needville until 1960, when she became librarian
at the Jane Long Junior High School in Houston. She retired in 1964
after serving the public schools for 32 years. In 2004 she endowed a
President?s Endowed Scholarship for students majoring in the College of
Education at Texas A&M University, which will provide an Aggie with
$12,000 per year for his or her studies.
During their retirement years, James and Mora Boone lived in Richmond,
Bellville and Bryan. They traveled extensively, spending much time in
state azchives and county courthouses researching their family roots.
They moved to Grand Court (now Waldenbrooke Estates) Retirement Center
in Bryan in 1988. James died March 22, 1996. Mora continues to live at
Waldenbrooke Estates. She has five grandchildren, 14 great
grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren.
Mora has been an active genealogical researcher, and was elected to
membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial
Dames of the XVII Century. She has traced her ancestral roots to Robert
the Bruce, King of Scots.
6/26/2006