Saturday, April 27, 2024
In 1975, The Gatesville Messenger published an article praising the extraordinary life of Mildred Watkins Mears. The article states: “Few women in the history of Coryell County have made their lives so purposeful in the pursuit of public good and community and county strength as did Mrs. Mildred Mears.”
Judge Byron McClellan was once quoted as saying, “Mrs. Mears was a doer. When she saw something that needed to be done for the betterment of her community or county, she did it.”
Mears, a descendant of a pioneer Coryell County family, was born Mildred Rosa Watkins on a ranch in Pidcoke on Aug. 25, 1888, the daughter of Henry Watkins and Rosa Belcher Watkins.
She received her elementary education in the one-teacher Belcher School at Pidcoke, later moving to Mound where she attended school there for two years before finishing her education at Gatesville High School where she graduated as the valedictorian of her class. The remainder of her education was at the University of Texas at Austin where her record of academic achievements was of the same high quality.
Following college, Mears returned to Gatesville where she taught in the schools from 1910 until 1925. She was first employed as a second-grade teacher in 1910. The following year, she was transferred to Gatesville Junior High and, in 1912, to Gatesville High School, where she won statewide recognition as a teacher of mathematics for her thorough and progressive way of teaching. In 1918, she delivered a speech entitled “Can I Interest All the Children in Geometry?” at the Texas State Teachers Association convention.
Her activities were not limited to the classroom. She helped organize the Camp Fire Girls and was leader of one of the groups, was sponsor of the literary society, coached girls basketball, and tutored the debating and declamation teams for participation in the University Interscholastic League contests.
In 1917, during a coaching shortage caused by the first World War, she was named coach of the GHS boys basketball team, accepting the post only after being petitioned to do so by the boys themselves. She coached this sport for five years, her 1917 team winning the district championship, her 1918 team the bi-district title, her 1919 team the tri-district championship, and her 1920 team the county crown. Her 1921 team won its way to the state semi-finals, where it lost to Central High of Houston by three points.
Mears also coached the boys’ track team in 1920 and 1921. Her team won the district championship in 1921, and several of the members placed high in events at the state relays.
In 1922, due to illness in the family, she resigned her teaching position. She returned to the faculty in 1923 and then retired permanently in 1925.
In 1926, she was married to Tom Mears, a Gatesville attorney who served as the city’s mayor, as state representative, and then as county attorney for many years.
Mildred, who had done considerable study and research of local history, was a representative from Coryell County on the State Centennial Board in 1936. As a member of the advisory council of the Coryell County Centennial in 1954, she wrote the sketch of the history of Coryell County that was contained in the official program and was co-author of the script for the centennial pageant.
When Gatesville High School celebrated its centennial, she wrote the play produced by students in commemoration of the event. It was known as “Our Christian Heritage” and won a nomination for a national award from the Freedoms Foundation.
At the high school homecoming in 1963, she received the Norris Graves Award as a distinguished alumnus. She was the second person to receive this annual award.
From time to time, she helped her husband with secretarial work in his law office and in 1939 was employed as secretary in the Gatesville Chamber of Commerce office. She became the C-C manager during World War II and was director of public and private housing in this area, supervising the assignment of Camp Hood soldiers and their wives to housing in Gatesville.
Mears was also a member of the board of directors of the Red Cross chapter and the Gatesville USO and served from 1940 to 1948 as a volunteer assistant to the draft board in registering men for military service. For her Red Cross and draft board service, she received four certificates of appreciation – two of which were signed by Present Harry Truman. She was also awarded a Selective Service medal.
One of the most noted gifts to the county was when she compiled her years of research on the history of Coryell County and published “The Coryell County Scrapbook” in 1963. The book, considered to be an authoritative work, received an enthusiastic reception from the public and copies were sold out within a few weeks after its publication.
Her book also reached the desk of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and he placed it in his personal library. In 1964, President Johnson wrote to Mears that he was the proud possessor of her book. He stated, “It contains so much information on my mother’s relatives that I am so glad to have. I know that this particularly complete record will be a valued addition to my library. May I take this opportunity to extend warm wishes to you for health and happiness in 1964.”
Following President Johnson’s warm letter to Mears, she commented that the President’s father had relatives living in the Oglesby community of Coryell County in addition to his mother’s family, the Baines family.
Mildred Watkins Mears died at the age of 87 on Oct. 17, 1975, and was laid to rest by her husband in the Gatesville City Cemetery. Following her death, all her research papers, documents, and the historical material she possessed were donated to the Cushing Memorial Library at Texas A&M University. The publishing rights of her book, Coryell County Scrapbook, were donated to the Coryell Museum and Historical Center who later printed a revised edition including an index in 1986.
In describing her life and her impact on Gatesville and Coryell County, it was written that “she gave of herself.”
