Lillian Greer Bedichek

Lillian Greer Bedichek (1885–1971) was an American educator.

Early life and education

Lillian Greer Bedichek was the daughter of James Francis Greer and Virginia Lee. She was born in Keachie, Louisiana, and in 1893 the family moved to Waco, Texas upon James's appointment as vice president of Baylor University.[1]

Bedichek attended Baylor University, but transferred.[2] She earned her B.A. from the University of Texas, where she majored in Greek and minored in Latin. She later returned to the university for graduate study, earning her M.A. in 1926.[3]

Career

Bedichek taught at Grayson College and the Waco public school system prior to her marriage, and in Deming, New Mexico shortly before the birth of her first child. In 1917 she resumed her teaching career at Austin High School, eventually becoming the head of the Spanish department. Her textbook, Mastering Spanish, was published in 1945.[4]

Bedichek was part of a network of educators and writers active in the American southwest. She collaborated with folklorist and language instructor Arthur L. Campa. She corresponded with educator George I. Sánchez.[5] Harry Peyton Steger regarded her, along with her future husband, as a partner in his "intellectual firm."[6]

Trading on her identity as "Mrs. Roy Bedichek," she wrote about life in the southwest, voicing concern about sharecropping and the future of private land ownership.[7] She reviewed books about the region.[8] Her advance endorsement of a Texans' biography was worthy of inclusion in advertisements.[9]

She was made an honorary member of the Texas Institute of Letters in 1965.[10] The University of Texas awards a scholarship named in honor of the Bedicheks.[11]

Personal life

In 1910 she married the naturalist Roy Bedichek. They had three children: Mary, Sarah, and Alston Lee (later Bachman Greer).[12]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Jane Gracy Bedichek, The Roy Bedichek Family Letters (Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 1998), UNT Digital Library (accessed 24 February 2015), 439-440
  2. ↑ Allen Rich, "The short story of Harry Peyton Steger: chapter 19," The North Texas e-News, May 12, 2008, http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_45924.shtml (accessed 24 February 2015).
  3. ↑ Bedichek, 439-440.
  4. ↑ Bedichek, 439-441.
  5. ↑ Inventory, George I. Sánchez Papers, 1919-1986, University of Texas, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utlac/00069/lac-00069.html (accessed 24 February 2015).
  6. ↑ Allen Rich, "The short story of Harry Peyton Steger: chapter 18," The North Texas e-News, May 5, 2008, http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_45800.shtml (accessed 24 February 2015).
  7. ↑ The Twentieth Century Magazine Vol. 6 (October 1912), 72-73, Google Books (accessed 24 February 2015).
  8. ↑ Lillian Greer Bedichek, Review of Rise of Christendom, The Interscholastic Leaguer Vol. XXI, No. 5 (January 1938), 2, http://www.uiltexas.org/files/leaguer/leaguer-archives/LE-1938-01.pdf (accessed 24 February 2015); Review of Straight Texas, The Interscholastic Leaguer Vol. XXI, No. 1 (September 1937), 2, http://www.uiltexas.org/files/leaguer/leaguer-archives/LE-1937-09.pdf (accessed 24 February 2015).
  9. ↑ Advertisement for Portrait of Pancho by Winston Bode, The Southwestern Historical Quarterly Vol. 68 (1964-1965), The Portal to Texas History (accessed 24 February 2015).
  10. ↑ "Texas Institute of Letters Members," Texas Institute of Letters website, http://www.texasinstituteofletters.org/members/TEXAS%20INSTITUTE%20OF%20LETTERS%20MEMBERS%20COMPLETE.PDF (accessed 24 February 2015).
  11. ↑ "Roy and Lillian Bedichek Scholarship in English," University of Texas at Austin website, http://endowments.giving.utexas.edu/page/bedichek-roy-lillian-schl-engl/3628/ (accessed 24 February 2015).
  12. ↑ Bedichek, 439-440.
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