Mr. Lee Appleberry
Impact
Dr. Mary Appleberry, known to her friends as “Molly”, absolutely loved teaching. Her mother and aunts were teachers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when teachers were not allowed to marry. Molly learned to read at an early age and was an accomplished musician. She completed her undergraduate degree at Pepperdine University and began her teaching career in the Spring of 1942 in a one room school in Apple Valley, California. The school was located in the high desert of California with students ranging from grades K-12. Apple Valley was not far from the Army Air Corp training base in Victorville, CA where a young Army mess sergeant named Bert Appleberry was stationed. They met, fell in love, and were married in April, 1944. After the war ended, they moved to Southeast Arkansas where Molly continued teaching before their two children were born in 1946 and 1949. After moving to the Brazosport area in 1952 where Bert began working for Dow Chemical, Molly began teaching third grade in Brazosport ISD in the Fall of 1953. They had very little wealth at that time but devoted themselves to building a better life for their family. Molly taught full time and they raised two children while she began pursuit of further education by commuting to Houston and by 1968 had earned both her masters and doctorate degrees in elementary education from the University of Houston. She and Bert bought a small farm in East Texas in the mid 1950s where he began building the commercial cow-calf operation which would enable him to retire from Dow in 1968. They moved to Shreveport, LA where Molly was an associate professor of education for Northwest Louisiana State University. When Molly was invited to join the elementary education department at SFASU in the Fall of 1970 they sold their farm and bought a place near Appleby, TX which was their home for more than twenty years. She loved teaching undergraduate and graduate students at SFA, particularly in the subjects of reading and language arts. She enjoyed a twenty year tenure on the SFA faculty and enjoyed many activities on the SFA campus ranging from choir, orchestra and band concerts to theater productions and SFA football games. Bert was always busy with their cattle, building a custom hay baling business, and visiting with friends at the country store. He was able to serve their community in many ways: as co-founder of the Appleby Volunteer Fire Department; president of the Nacogdoches Lions Club; Nacogdoches County FHA board member; and president of the Appleby Water Board. He and Molly were also active members of First United Methodist Church, where she served as volunteer librarian for many years.
Bert and Molly were married for sixty seven years before Bert’s death at the age of 94 in 2011 and her death in 2014 at the age of 93. They established the scholarship which bears their names in the hope that it would help future generations of teachers complete their degree.