93-Year-Old Woman Receives High School Diploma 75 Years After Unfair Expulsion

They say, “it’s never to late to go back and graduate,” and that’s exactly what one 93-year-old woman did for her birthday.

In the Spring of 1942, Liggett was a high school senior at Akron’s North High School preparing for graduation. She had decided to elope with her husband during World War II when he had been called to serve the U.S. Army Air Corps. The couple had been secretly married for a short while and Liggett knew she was pregnant. All this was happening as she was two short months away from graduation.

Her plan at the time: lay low, finish school, and then join her husband on base while she carries the pregnancy to term. But fate intervened and Liggett accidentally spilled the beans about her marriage to a gym teacher, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. 

Now, at this time, being married was against school policy, so Liggett was expelled and she never got the opportunity to receive her diploma.

Eventually, she did join her husband on base and gave birth while he finished his pilot’s training. The vivacious woman went on to birth four more children, one of whom was Janice Larkin.

Larkin told Beacon Journal:

 “When we were growing up, my mother always insisted that I and my siblings finish school and go to college. She did the same thing with her grandchildren, great grandchildren and even neighborhood children. She would tell us how important education is and say that the worst thing you could do is not finish school.”

After hearing her mother’s words for years, Larkin wrote to Akron Public School’s Superintendent David James asking if her mother could receive an honorary degree…and who could say no to a request like that?

A ceremony was carried out and news crews showed up to record the inspiring moment that you can watch below. If you value the importance of education, please SHARE this heartfelt story with friends and family to remind them of the importance of it too.

[Featured Image Credit: Arabella via Youtube]

93-Year-Old Woman Receives High School Diploma 75 Years After Unfair Expulsion is an article from: LifeDaily