Dr. Pauline Moseley

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Funeral services for Dr. Pauline Moseley, 87, of Belton, will be held at 11:00 AM Thursday, June 8, 2023, at Dossman Funeral Home Chapel with Chaplain Gretchen Hook officiating.   Graveside services will be held at 1:00 PM Friday, June 9, 2023, at Pyland Cemetery in Avinger.

Dr. Moseley passed away quietly this week, June 3, 2023  with her daughter holding her hand. Her life and career is a testament to her belief in the power of education to change lives. She was born in Lassater, Texas to Franklin and Mary Sturdivant. Frank graduated with a sixth-grade education and was the planer foreman at the sawmill while Mary played piano for the Baptist Church. Polly was the tomboy who played and ran in the countryside and learned to make chewing gum from sweetgum tree sap and blackberries. And she was the one who stood up for her brother in fights at school.

After graduating from Jefferson High School as salutatorian, she entered Navarro Junior College and graduated Phi Theta Kappa, the junior college honor society. From there she entered East Texas State University where she waited tables to support herself and shared a car with her roommate. One made the payments and the other bought the gas. She began teaching Vocational Home Economics in Tyler, Texas at Boulter Junior High, where she met and married Royce Blackburn and had the first of two children, Franklin. After several moves in Texas and a second child, Allison, the marriage ended in divorce and she determined she needed to find a way to support her family as a single mother. And boy was she determined!

In a day when women couldn’t even get a credit card by themselves, Mom went back to ETSU and earned a Doctor of Education degree. With degree in hand, she began teaching at American Technological University in Killeen, Texas, and there she stayed for over forty years and taught thousands of students. She was a natural storyteller who could embellish a tale or a lesson with charm and wit and her humor and empathy for her classes is part of what made her a remarkable teacher. Through the university’s various incarnations, she became Chair of the Education Department, Professor, Dean, and eventually President of the University, teaching classes all the while. Her deep gratitude for her success led her to participate in numerous service organizations in the area and state and she took leadership roles in many of them.

As much as she was an amazing teacher with an impressive resume, she was an amazing mother. She appeared at many a half-time band performance in the driving rain or grueling heat and endless dance recitals and theatre shows. She had a quirky smile that was almost straight across, but joy was always in her eyes. She was an amazing Cub Scout Den Mother who learned to play the kazoo and who could salve bee stings with baking soda. She could take a simple birthday party and turn it into a pirate treasure hunt. She also made the best fried chicken and cheesecake on earth. In all of this she was always herself… a teacher. And if there’s a blackboard in heaven, that’s where you’ll find Mom.

Survivors include son Royce Blackburn (Louise), daughter Allison Allen (Nick), stepsons Mike Moseley (Susan) and Tom Moseley (Sophia) and stepdaughter Debbie Gracia (Ernest); eleven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.