In some aspects, the story of 87 year old Lewisville resident Valeree Wynn is heart wrenching and lamentable. In other ways, Wynn’s story is heroic and inspiring. One lady, one story; but there can be many, many interpretations. You see, Wynn grew up on a farm in another era when the color of a person’s skin dictated what they could and couldn’t do.  She’s gone from a naïve little girl to a frustrated student to a very accomplished woman during her lifetime, and if you spend some time talking to her, it’s easy to catch a glimpse of the fiery spirit that led Wynn from a small segregated grade school in Oklahoma to completing her masters thesis and doctorate in the face of punishing, isolating racism that could have left Wynn broken, but instead instilled in her the confidence to break ground in a number of instances, including being the first African-American to ever serve on the Board of Regents of Oklahoma Colleges.         

     Wynn’s days began in the area around Lawton, Oklahoma, where she was raised as an only child on a farm where hard work was just a way of life. “We had cotton and wheat, horses and cows. It was just the epitome of farming; we had a little bit of it all,” she said. Wynn said in a way, her childhood of feeding chickens and gathering eggs was the very best of life. “I grew up with the essence of naivety because everything was good. It was a very pleasant life for a child.” She was aware, however, that if she and her friends went to the movies in Lawton, they had to sit in the balcony because their skin was black. The only reason there was a school for black children to attend in the area was because her father wrote a petition and got enough signatures that a family finally donated one acre of land to build a one building school for all the black children from grades 1-12 to attend. A few years later that school was burned down, Wynn said, by blacks who were unhappy that their children had to walk a mile to attend. After that, the entire school was moved to Wynn’s home because her parents were determined not to give up on their daughter getting an education. “When you have a zeal for something, nothing stops you,” she said. “Opportunities are created. God makes things happen. We might take credit for it, but we actually didn’t have anything to do with,” she says looking back on those days.
       

     Despite all of this, Wynn may not have fully realized the difference the color of her skin made until she finished the eighth grade. When she was ready for the ninth grade, Wynn was told she couldn’t go to the local high school in Sentinel, Oklahoma because it was for white students only.  Determined to get an education so she could become a teacher, Wynn moved, so she could attend a high school for black students about 80 miles away. “It was the closest high school for blacks. I had to leave my mother and father. It didn’t make sense to me,” she says, reflecting back to the day she left the farm to live with some family friends. “I was 13 years old, and I missed my family. I didn’t get to go home as much as I would have liked.” But since her parents wanted her to get an education, Wynn made the move. She lived with family friends until she graduated from high school, and her graduating class consisted of seven other black students. Wynn says she is now the last member of her class alive. After graduation, she once again moved in order to continue her education.          
          

     This time it was to live with an aunt and uncle in Colorado so she could attend Pubelo Junior College, at the time a two-year school.  It was the first time the African-American Wynn had ever gone to school with whites. “I had to lose a lot of my inhibitions. I was conditioned to living in a segregated society,” Wynn remembers. It was 1939. “In Pueblo, students of other races treated me like a whole person for the first time,” she said. She barely had time to adjust to living in that atmosphere when she finished her studies at the junior college and moved back to Oklahoma to attend Lancaster University, the only black college in that state. “It was just like throwing the rabbit back in the briar patch,” said Wynn, who ended up teaching English for 33 years. But, if Wynn was the rabbit and the segregated atmosphere she once again found herself in was the briar patch, she was definitely one rabbit that didn’t stay put. All of those years in the classroom give the former teacher many fond memories, but one was when a little girl named Veronica looked up at her and said some words she has never forgotten.” You have taught me how to learn,” Wynn says Veronica told her. “That’s when I realized it was all worthwhile,” the former teacher says.

    Wynn met her husband Phail at Lancaster University, and education was just as important to him as it was to Wynn and her parents.  He encouraged her to get her masters degree, and she did, writing her thesis on John Milton. She was half way through getting her doctorate when her 52 year-old husband died suddenly in his sleep.  They had been married 30 years and had two sons, Phail Jr. and Michael, and a daughter Patricia. Wynn went on despite the loss and wrote her doctoral thesis on Lord Byron. Today, Phail Junior is vice-president of Duke University in North Carolina. Michael lives in Lewisville and is the reason Wynn moved here from Oklahoma six years ago. Her daughter Patricia passed away in 1983. Wynn’s resume is a little bit unusual as it contains the word FIRST so many times. She was the first black teacher at Lawton High School, where she was the only black teacher among 98 white teachers. “No one would sit by me in faculty meetings,” she remembered. “Only one teacher would even talk to me. There are no words to describe when you can feel that kind of animosity.”
          

     Determined not to let that stop her journey, Wynn went on to become the first black teacher at Cameron University, also in Lawton. The list goes on, as Wynn became the first black ever to serve on the Board of Regents of Oklahoma Colleges, and the first black to be inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame. She treasures a framed citation from the City of Lawton and one from the Governor of Oklahoma, both for outstanding service. Another treasure is a heavy wooden plaque from the Board of Regents citing Wynn’s dedicated meritorious service. Reminiscing about the first meeting she attended with the board, Wynn said it was 1986 and she had to go to Woodward, Oklahoma. “There were no blacks in Woodward, Oklahoma,” she stated. “I was stopped by the police and asked what business I had in their town.”  She persevered, and later Wynn was inducted into Oklahoma’s Higher Education Hall of Fame. What do all of these memories and accomplishments mean to this woman? “It means that maybe a trail has been blazed. And once the trail has been blazed, maybe it’s a little easier for the next one,” she mused.

    Son Phail Junior has made good use of that trail, and he became the first black community college president in North Carolina before becoming a vice president at Duke University. “I know he paid his dues, too,” his mother said. “I’ve worn out two or three pair of knee pads praying. Nothing has been given to us.” Wynn currently lives in Franklin Park in Lewisville, and in her apartment she displays many reminders of her academic life. Certificates, diplomas, plaques and photographs are plentiful, such as one award from the Daughters of the American Revolution that she says is one of her most cherished. A photo of Wynn and actress Phylicia Rashad, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the 1984-1992 NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, sits on an entertainment center. Wynn said the retirement community provides plenty of activity and friends. “I try not to do more than two EXTRA activities a day,” she confided, although sometimes she finds that self-imposed restriction hard to enforce. She participates in twice weekly bridge games, weekly bingo games, weekly Bible Study and also services on Sunday. She still loves to read and work crossword puzzles and she still drives her own car. And, Wynn certainly hasn’t lost her love of education. “Always know who is influencing your opinions. Examine the evidence. Learn to have an opinion and support it with reasoning. Otherwise, you have to take someone else’s word for it, and you surrender the most important thing God has given you and that is the ability to form your own opinion,” Wynn advises. It is a sure bet that Wynn didn’t take anyone else’s word for what she should do with her life, and today, the world is a better place for it.