{"id":5581,"date":"2013-05-07T11:47:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T16:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=5581"},"modified":"2024-07-02T14:22:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T14:22:53","slug":"grandmajo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=5581","title":{"rendered":"Six decades later, ‘Grandma Jo’ set to graduate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Helen<\/a>
Helen Hunter sits next to a computer she used to complete her last college course.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Helen Joan (Miller) Hunter was eight months pregnant \u2013 and three credits short of her degree \u2013 when she watched her husband graduate from Carolina in 1947.<\/p>\n

Sixty-six years later, more than a dozen family members will be on hand Sunday at Kenan Stadium to watch the 87-year-old great-grandmother earn her Bachelor of Arts diploma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long time coming,\u2019\u2019 said Hunter, an avid bridge player and golfer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. \u201cBut I\u2019m happy to do it \u2026 and I think my parents would be proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her four children and six grandchildren certainly are.<\/p>\n

Grandson Ryan Helton, 30, says he grew up listening to Grandma Jo reminisce about her time at UNC \u2013 and lament the fact that she was just one class short of her college degree.<\/p>\n

Born in Pennsylvania in 1925, Hunter graduated from Central High in Charlotte. After two years at the Woman\u2019s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, she transferred to Chapel Hill (which didn\u2019t enroll most women until their junior years back then). She kept up her language studies while joining Alpha Delta Pi sorority, playing catcher on an intramural softball team, and living in Spencer Hall.<\/p>\n

Even after getting married in the fall of her senior year, commuting from Durham and learning she was pregnant, she planned to graduate with her husband . . . until appendicitis forced her to undergo surgery just six weeks before the end of the school year.<\/p>\n

Promising her parents and herself that she\u2019d take a final elective course by correspondence, she withdrew. But after settling into family life, having three more children, and taking on many other responsibilities including Girl Scout leader, Sunday school teacher, and panhellenic chapter president of her sorority; those three last credits remained elusive.<\/p>\n

\"Helen<\/a>
Helen Hunter studies for the course, “The History of Elvis.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Until her grandkids got involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll growing up \u2013 and I\u2019ve actually got this on video \u2013 she\u2019d tell the story of being pregnant and getting appendicitis, and how close she was to getting her degree,\u2019\u2019 Helton said. \u201cAnd she always said, \u2018Oh, I should go back and get those last three credits.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 I had heard that my whole life, so finally this past year, we said, \u2018All right, enough of her talking about it; let\u2019s finally make this happen.\u2019 I think we kind of pushed her to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November 2011, her granddaughter-in-law, Bethany, contacted UNC graduation advisor Richard Cramer, who was surprised by the e-mail. Having someone want to complete a degree after a couple of decades isn\u2019t too unusual, said Cramer, who also teaches in the Department of Sociology. \u201cBut 60-plus years out? That is,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

The family, at first, wanted to know whether Grandma Jo might qualify for some sort of honorary degree. Cramer dug into Hunter\u2019s old academic record and researched UNC\u2019s general education requirements from the 1940s, then informed the family she need only to pass one elective class to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Romance Languages \u2013 Spanish.<\/p>\n

So the grandkids scoured Arizona State University\u2019s online courses.\u00a0 One immediately stood out: The History of Elvis.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, my brother and I would spend the night at her house on Saturday night, and drive with her on Sunday morning to church,\u2019\u2019 Helton said. \u201cWell, on the way she always played her Elvis Presley \u2013 she loves her Elvis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew she just needed an elective, so we thought, \u2018What better class?\u2019 It was a no-brainer to have her do that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t necessarily easy, though. The summer music course, approved by UNC, included four exams, and multiple lectures, quizzes, readings and written assignments. And then there was the online component. Hunter didn\u2019t even own a computer, much less know the definition of \u201cweb site.\u201d So the family helped out in shifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all came over with our laptops, and we had to order our internet for the month that class was going, and we just took turns,\u2019\u2019 Helton said. \u201cWe got her logged in, and then she did all the audio lectures, the video lectures, she took all of the notes herself. She did all of the work, and took the exams all by herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At 87 years old, Helen Hunter received an A minus on her very last college course!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In August, she earned an A-minus \u2013 and finally qualified for her degree \u2013 in between her usual trips to the library and Tuesday rounds of golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to keep busy,\u2019\u2019 explained a laughing Hunter, who plays piano and accordion, too.<\/p>\n

In that same active vein, Hunter, who will arrive in Chapel Hill this weekend, hopes to visit her old sorority house and former residence hall before Sunday\u2019s graduation ceremony. She said she\u2019s not quite sure how she will feel when she finally dons a cap and gown, more than six decades after she first expected to graduate.<\/p>\n

But she\u2019s happy to know how many of her family members will be watching \u2014 and grinning at the fact that Grandma Jo will have a new college memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s our cornerstone, the matriarch,\u2019\u2019 Helton said. \u201cI just think this speaks to my grandmother\u2019s spirit more than anything. Her going back to school is just the microcosm of who she is as a person, and she has inspired all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Story courtesy of www.unc.edu<\/a><\/em>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Helen Joan (Miller) Hunter was eight months pregnant \u2013 and three credits short of her degree \u2013 when she watched her husband graduate from Carolina in 1947. Sixty-six years later, more than a dozen family members will be on hand to watch her graduate on 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